Proximity
by jenni3penny
Summary: Series Finale Post Ep. Huge spoilers everywhere. Chibs & Ally. "Because as much as it throttled on his lungs, he still found the very length of her striking. The gun was just a reminder that he found her all the prettier when she was angry. "
1. Chapter 1

The single factor she'd forgotten, while unintentionally letting herself fall half into maybe more than lust with him, was that he was still a pack alpha in a dirty little den of criminals. And not even just every day criminals. They were downright murderers, liars and thieves. But she'd let herself forcefully forget it because there had always been a gracious leniency in him otherwise, a lay of patience aching in brown eyes. And she'd maybe been mistaken for seeing what she thought was sadness in a beautifully scarred face. Because on the unscratched surface, he really was damn beautiful. Especially when he smiled. And even when she'd itched a little deeper and drawn up a hint of a possible raging, he'd still been a gorgeous leather wrapped gift of possibility. A possibility she unintentionally had let herself momentarily believe was real.

And letting him sleep beside her had maybe been the singular worst mistake she'd ever made in her career. The sex hadn't necessarily been the point that had broken her down toward weak willed. It had been great sex, sure. But sex was really only the pact they'd made to move closer to the sun without ashing up on each other. Close but not too close to burn.

Sex had never been a problem between them.

The problem had always laid warmly in the long strong stretch of him beside her for hours at a time.

It had been the fact that he had unguarded his center just long enough to close his eyes and find some kind of rest. Because when he slept, he'd reached for her instead of all the things she was supposed to protect people from. Him included.

And now the stacking up of death upon death, damn near every one somehow connected to him… it was making a mockery of her and the fact that she had stupidly thought that maybe she could save just a little bit of that beautiful.

As far as she was concerned, a threat to add her to the list of the dead - no matter how bitterly veiled it had been - was the bell rung demise of anything she'd ever found gently loving in him.

He truly was a murdering bastard among thicker than blood brothers.

And it didn't bother her that she'd fucked him while knowing where his hands had been.

It bothered her that she'd damn near been in love with him despite it.

* * *

><p>"You hear me, LT?" He was extraordinarily young and the concern in his voice as he cocked his head at a tipping angle ridged against her patience, "Lieutenant?"<p>

"I heard you, Mac." She blinked rapidly, shaking her head as she stretched her hand into the way he was offering the paperwork to her. "Thank you."

"You okay?" he seemed genuinely concerned by her vacancy and she couldn't help but lay an appreciative smile over him in return.

"I'm okay." She nodded before flipping past the preliminary report that was on top, intentionally searching for the next one without a breath between. "This is all they sent over?"

"Processed evidence and possessions are coming in with the transport of remains. I told them that was fine. They're securing it by sending an officer with." He was still searching her face with a worry that made him seem even younger and greener than she would have liked.

"Seriously. Stop it." She tipped over him, a brow arched into the way he was studying her. "I'm fine."

"I know you liked him." He shrugged over the way she was holding the reports coming out of Oregon, her fingers paused against the pages.

And because 'him', in her mental vocabulary, was still categorized by an accent and leather and lust – she flacked a suddenly piercing glance over the young man's face.

"He was a good cop." He nodded to her softly, voice shunting low at the fluxed way she was staring at him. "I know you liked working with him."

"I did." Ally exhaled the words out on an unexplainable relief that had him studying her confusedly. "Guess I'm still in shock, ya know?"

He was just watching her.

And it was very soon going to put him in a position he didn't deserve.

Unless he'd been one to go running to Patterson to lay her ass on the line.

But then his too innocent eyes made it seem like an unlikely bet.

"I want everything that comes in on my desk. Everything. I don't care how small time it seems." She was already turning away from him, the papers drawn up into her chest as she moved away from him.

"You were off duty two hours ago, Lieutenant."

She ignored his now seemingly too personal concern, keeping her back on him as she moved toward her office, "Everything, Mac."

* * *

><p>The world felt suddenly very welled wide and slanted to an unexplainable and undecipherable angle. Because even the knowing of what had happened and what had been coming, the sure assumption that all the things he'd been told would play about… not one nothing could have set him still and readily prepared for the fact that his family had been halved in the short hours of one un-ended day. The whole week had felt as long as one frayed up day, and just as short as one too. And he'd suddenly lost four people into emptied hands.<p>

Except they weren't emptied enough to allow him a taste of grief's acidic bitterness yet. Because as he'd settled into Jackson's empty house, let himself sit to a lonely couch, he'd pulled the patch into his fingers again. And he didn't know how long he stared at it so despondently blankly. But the accusation of responsibility it was staring back at him was more than enough to keep him from leaning into grieving yet.

Of course, it would come.

Of that, he had no doubt.

He battled it back with a strained and stricken swallow, stripping the cut and laying it to the table, the President patch settled softly to it before he moved the sharp ached bones of his body off the couch. Chibs searched soft and quiet through the kitchen first, keeping his gloves on and touching only what he needed to in search for needle and thread. And halfway through the searching he realized that Tara was still breathing somewhere around him. In every shifting sound of an otherwise silent and near dark house. She would have kept them somewhere else. Not here in her organized kitchen drawers. She would have kept them in a cluttered up drawer of miscellany that she didn't need to keep catalogued in her too hurried mind.

And his heavy hearted boy wouldn't have changed the way she'd left such things.

They'd still be the same.

Jackson would have kept her close. As close as possible.

And with his gloved hand still clenching an open drawer handle he sharpened down another swallow, head shaking into the realization that jealousy was a sudden swilled dankness in the back of his throat. Clogging the balance of his breathing. A jealousy of their too easy proximity and their too true honesty.

Because Jackson had always kept her too close to where she should have been standing and it had gotten her killed by his own mother's fierce love. And Jackson had been the one to remind him not to keep too close to the one something that he could have held near on for years if she'd let him.

And now Jackson was dead. Left him to pick up from nothing.

And it'd all gotten her gone anyhow.

* * *

><p>It was halfway through the sewing, fingers shakier on it than he'd meant, that his vision had blurred up bright in the shadowed living room. And it had been because he'd let himself see their faces in the blind spot vacancy of his vision as he'd pressed a needle through tight leather. He'd let himself lay guilted apologies of prayers up to each and every one of them as he'd tried to follow a straightened up line.<p>

He didn't know what the hell he was doing.

He didn't know how the hell he was going to do what the boys expected of him when he couldn't find even breathing through putting on a patch.

He wasn't even sure how he'd find any sleep.

Not that he necessarily believed that he was deserving of it any night soon.

Chibs raggedly dumped the half sewn cut onto the table, shutting it away from his shaking hands as he roughed back onto the couch, slumping his hips low as he laid his cheek into the fabric of it. He may not have been able to find sleep, but his exhaustion had found another source for burning tears. And he was just self loathing enough to try and stop them from coming, trying to block the release of anything sorrow tinted from inside him – because something else in him wanted to hold onto it for as long as he could – because then at least he still had a portion of everyone he'd lost in the sweep of a sun's day.

* * *

><p>"Ortiz, Gemma Teller, Marks, Barosky, and Wayne Unser. And I don't doubt for a second that there are more of them we don't even know about or can't connect." The thudding sound of a stack of folders on a cleared desk was essentially the same sound that had been shunting down on her lungs for more than a day. "Evidence implicating Teller can be traced to all of them."<p>

It was the sound of some sort of end.

Heavy and deafening after.

"Teller is dead." The other woman's head angled in an airily condescending tone.

"I'm aware of that, District Attorney." She didn't have the patience to sit yet, it wasn't in her to bow down again in such a short distance of time. "What would you like me to do about it? Charge the truck driver as an accomplice?"

"He did all of this on his own? Before driving himself into an eighteen wheeler?" the older of the two tipped a look up over Ally and arched her brow into the slow and calculated questioning of her tone, "How did his crew react to the news? About him? And the mother and Ortiz?"

"I don't know." Ally shook her head down, swallowing the dryness on her throat as her shoulders twitched forward in admittance. "I sent a deputy."

"You didn't deliver this news yourself?" Patterson sharpened over her, leaning into the desk with a stretched hand and a silent implication that she'd missed an opportunity.

"It's been made pretty clear that they don't want to see my face right now. I wasn't going to antagonize them. Not when it comes to what they consider family." Ally finally dipped into the chair that was spaced across from the other woman, her knees bending in a rush as she slacked her shoulders back.

"I was under the impression that you had a fairly strong footing with this crew." The District Attorney's voice was suddenly so knowingly accusatory that she hated the fact she'd leveled them at all.

"Your impression was wrong." She blinked succinctly into the response, feeling her jaw slack as she exhaled and shook her glance away from Patterson's.

"My impression wasn't wrong, Lieutenant. My impression had internal evidence to support it and you know it." There was a shift forward in the other woman's body as she dipped her jaw, the intimations she'd made earlier suddenly plainly played out by the reveal, "You cut ties, didn't you, Althea?"

"Would you rather have a good cop who works straight for the information or a shitty cop who can't tell the difference between the two anymore?"

She'd snapped tight to the point where she couldn't lay a care to respect or rank or bureaucratic bullshit anymore.

She was tired, she was alone, and she was suddenly the favored target of everyone around her. And if they were going to pull on her she wasn't going to question a draw back.

Patterson's eyes thinned slowly. "Too close, Ally."

"I know that." She nodded in a jerked response.

"And how'd it play out for you?"

"Not especially well." A ratcheted breath came off her lungs, a sort of despondent laugh laying off her lips as she shook her glance to the side again, "Considering he was next in line after Teller, I don't doubt that I just gave the new President of Samcro a damn big target for his rage."

"Do you need out?" A visceral sympathy sheathed the older woman's dark features.

"I dunno yet." Ally shrugged into it, not knowing that she'd even considered that there may have actually been one. "Maybe."

Patterson gave her hopefully questioning look, "You don't think it's salvageable?"

"I think that in a day he lost what he considers a son, a mother, a brother and the woman he'd been fucking, District Attorney." The intentionally played despondency had spread into the flattened out gravel in her voice. "No. I don't think it's anywhere near salvageable. Salvageable is when you fight over who does the laundry. He's gonna be completely untethered now. Telford's not… he's emotional. But he's also calculating. He'll have more power than he had before and he's shut me out. Because I defied him."

"Do you need an out?" Patterson repeated softly, blinking into a lightened shrug, "Because I think you routinely underestimate yourself."

Ally shunted a glare into the lip service. "I think you overestimate my ability to not get dead if I keep putting myself in his face."

"Which is why you sent the deputy."

She let out a shuddering exhale, a constriction in her throat that was suddenly making the room overly warm. "Which is why I sent the deputy."

"Carry this out, Althea. You don't need him to make it work." Patterson gave her a squinted glance. "I think it'll reward you in the end if you stay right where you are."

She knew the look she raised toward the other woman was distasteful and disgusted.

She didn't much care as she shifted from the chair and left the room.

* * *

><p>"Hey." He lifted his head into the intentional softness of Rat's voice as the younger man leaned his elbows into the bar, catching Telford's glance on a worried smile that never reached the darkness of his eyes.<p>

"Hey." Chibs caught a squeeze against the younger man's hand before drawing his fingers back over the bar, reaching for a pack of cigarettes as he upped his jaw. "Let it out, boy. You'll bust if y'don't."

"Sheriff's office called."

He tried to pin down on the accusatory glance he laid over his glasses at the younger man but he couldn't help the darkness it shaded along his scruffed jaw as he pried out a cigarette and palmed for his lighter. "Aye? And?"

"We can pick up the possessions if we want." Rat's voice caged soft and a bit nervous as he lifted his shoulders back, palms skiffing the table, "I mean, I can go and get 'em if you want. I don't - "

"No." Chibs laid out sharply, flicking open the Zippo and lighting the cigarette to avoid the searching glance that was rising and running over him, letting himself exhale slowly as he shook his head to the side. "I'll go."

"You don't have to, Prez." Rat offered in a soft placation that drew a suddenly sharp blackened glance from the other man, forcing him to lift his hands in slow defense. "You want me to ride with?"

Chibs swallowed as he noted the concern in the other man's long and lean face. "Sure. Yeah."

"Okay." Rat gave him a flushed smile of agreement. "Okay, gimme five."

* * *

><p>He'd finally felt the stroke of her eyes as he'd straightened up from the desk, caught into the way she'd been watching him through her office window as he'd signed off on the paperwork that had been laid before him. Chibs let the pen scatter carelessly onto the deputy's desk as he cocked his head into the way their eyes trapped up against each other. He exhaled slowly, unforgivingly still as he watched her turn away from the window with a shake of her head. And the far away turning of her flicked a switch of frustration on him that he'd barely been keeping a choke hold against. His fist grappled into the three evidence bags that had been left for him to take, prizing them up into one hand as he angled past the desk, regardless of the way one of her officers cautioned against it.<p>

She was damn well going to face him in this.

Whether she liked it or not.

And he was feet from her office before he was stalled up in his steps by two deputies who had seen the direction of his movements maybe before he'd even realized where they were leading. Chibs snorted a cocked glance between the two of them.

"Y'think so, boys?" he bit the words out on a manic grin that laced with disdain.

"Guys." Her voice pieced out behind them, soft and soothed and something like what he remembered on his skin. "Relax."

"Really, Jarry?" There was a danger in letting his tone bank so brackishly angry and low and she knew it, even as two deputies blocked up between her and the scruffed darkness of his jaw, "This is how you want it t'be? This is your play? Sending a boy to do your job and locking yourself up in here? I expected better from you."

"It's fine, guys. Really." Her voice stayed soft in the face of his intentional baiting, eyes narrowed dark as she searched over him, letting her glance dip to leather and back up along his face, "The new President obviously has something to say to me."

She felt his height and strength at her back halfway to the office and the very insistent heat of him at once put her muscles into a tight caution and an aching for the warmth that always tended to generate from the center of him. Swallowing was more difficult than meant to be as she stepped into her office and offered the chair, glance riding his shoulders as he slacked into the seat, not at all concerned that he'd left himself open. Her hand went tentative against the door before she slid it closed, fingers wiping off the door before she stepped around him, angling past the desk so that she could lean her hips and hands back against a shelving unit.

He looked blankly despondent and worn in exhausted.

And she hated herself for letting it pull at her sympathy.

"Are the Teller boys safe?" she asked quietly, letting that sympathy bleed into the murmured softness of the question.

"Nothin's gonna reach those boys." He darkened at her on a racked up tone, a jaded surprise lightening his eyes. "They're fine."

"Padilla?" she asked quietly.

"None of your business." Chibs relayed softly, his eyes calmed dark.

"It is my business, actually. And Children's Services eventually." Ally exhaled slowly, her eyes following the furious thinning of his, "I'm assuming Wendy is with them. Which is why I haven't done anything. Jesus, I made it as easy for you as I could, Filip. I sent the Deputy to keep things peaceable. I didn't call you. I had my office call to give us space."

His distrusting snort of derision shook his glance away from her as his jaw firmed into a long twitching line. "You hid. Like a coward."

"I did what you told me to do when you threatened me, President." She snapped back into his accusation as the designation drew his glance sharply back. "And if I hadn't, you would have been just as pissed at me for showing up. You would have raged either way."

His shoulders angled back in the chair as he studied her, hips laying lower into it as his hand dropped down beside himself to grip into plastic.

"Seem t'be missing something." He slowly and methodically thumped all three evidence bags she'd signed off on to her desk, eyes holding hers throughout the movements of his hands. "A hole damn bag of somethings."

"Are you serious?" Ally's voice was bottomed by disbelief and a flush of sudden rage that pinked the pale of her cheeks in a way that he couldn't help but watch, "You… you only want those things to… don't pretend you gave a shit about him. Every one of you let him twist. I don't doubt that he's dead because he tried to help her and don't tell me that you would have stopped Teller if you'd been there. Don't you dare."

The accusations she was threading between them had his skin tingling hot and he couldn't help a bitterness rising in his throat, "Don't pretend to know who I give a shit about or don't, Lieutenant."

"Right." It was as though she'd suddenly remembered something extremely important as her head lifted level, eyes coppered brighter in pained distaste, "Because you are extraordinarily good at lying about who you care about and who you don't."

Guilt tasted like a bitter morning after bile and he swallowed on it once again.

"And you're extraordinarily good at passing judgment on the things you don't fucking understand." He shunted back, feeling his throat go sore in its grating of how wrong she may have been in her estimation.

He hadn't not cared.

He hadn't yet been able to move toward letting her know it.

And she hadn't ever had the damn sense to just be patient and let him find the way.

Chibs lifted his eyes over her movements as she turned and stepped to her desk, her movements angrily stunted and rough as she jerked open one of the lower drawers. His jaw came up into the way she pulled another plastic bag from the drawer and let it drop onto the desk, her hands and body shifting quickly back away from him, keeping the distance she'd earlier placed as she nodded toward it in an almost sort of surrender.

"You give him what he deserves or just let me do it." The surety in her demand graced a surprise on him and he cast a glance over the paleness of her face, "He gave you years of his life and got three bullets in the chest as thanks. Please, Filip?"

He shifted forward slowly and laid his hands against the bag she'd slapped down, fingers spread against it as he exhaled, dipping his head into a slow nod before he lifted a silent glance in her direction, shoulders loosening down, "Keep it then."

Ally blinked a slowly confused acceptance into his sudden softness, swallowing as she looked over the way he pulled his hands back, "Where are your rings?"

"I put them away." He answered succinctly before pressing up from the chair, otherwise ignoring the way she watched his hands, focused on their tightness against gathered plastic bags as he started back toward the door. "Do I need paperwork to have the funeral home come?"

"No." she murmured up behind him, "I cleared everything."

"Then I'll leave Unser to you, yeah?" there was a sudden undivided sadness on his face as he turned back, his fist wrapped on the door handle as he angled a gaunt questioning toward her.

Ally nodded slowly, "Yeah."

"You look tired, Althea." She blinked flush surprise into the sorrowed words he'd given her before tugging open the door and leaving.

* * *

><p>He knew she had to have heard the bike. She always always had. And he hadn't even made it to the steps before there were two realities staring him in the face. The first that she had a pistol caged in both hands and leveled just somewhere around the height of his groin, her shoulders squared up to the frame of her open door. The second being that, considering she was pulling an obviously trained shooting stance in very small shorts and a too large t-shirt, he still found it damnable attractive. Because as much as it throttled on his lungs, he still found the very length of her striking. The gun was just a reminder that he found her all the prettier when she was angry. It always gilded her eyes and livened up the whole taut muscle stretch of her.<p>

"Y'wanna shoot me, Althea?" he sent the words up the sidewalk quietly, gloved hands lifted at his sides in a low laying challenge. "It's the only chance you're ever gonna get."

"I'm not the one threatening people because they disagree with me." Her jaw turned a fraction higher even as she kept her aim true toward his crotch. "And I highly doubt it's the only chance. The future is uncertain for men like you."

He hashed up a sardonic laugh but his eyes were a sickened ruddy brown in the sallow light that crossed her sidewalk, his boots bringing him a few steps closer to the jut of her steps, "You're treadin' toward threats yourself now, love."

He was close enough now that he could see the flinched hurt that shattered her face at the lay of his voice on the term.

"Go home, Filip." She told him with a slowly devastated shake of her head, hair tipping her shoulders and hands loosening the double hold she had on the Glock, letting it hang to her side uncaringly. "You have no reason to be here anymore."

The turn of her shoulder leading away before the rest of her had his lungs closing up, oxygen unreachable.

"Don't y'walk away from me." The force in his tone was breaking apart, even as he tried to harden it off, his hand digging a glove fisted palm tightly into the front of her shirt, eyes blood shot red as he looked up into the way light haloed her sadly.

He'd expected the gun to rise and lifted the other palm to stall its movement, head angled to the opposite side.

But she'd stayed brokenly still even as he'd pulled at her, the look on her face so exhaustedly fluxed and torn as she just simply shook her head.

"You wanna kill me, Filip?" she whispered over him with an utterly vacant voice, rolling the Glock on her trigger finger and lifting it like it was a weightless toy between them. "It's the first chance you're gonna get. So fucking take it already."

She shunted the gun flat and so roughly into his unmoving silence that he felt his shoulders lean, his open hand jerking to catch her wrist, pulling her down over him even as she nudged him away. The ride of his boot arch catching the step edge had him driving the front of his body hard into hers as he held them forcefully pried together, eyes searching over her face as she tightened up along him. The intentional distance she kept from his touching had his lungs cracking open a clammy coldness he hadn't realized he was still capable of… He hadn't realized there was still any depth of emotion left. It was humanizing in a way, but only it that it let him break farther down, bottoming through another level into another lowness. And he hated her for it. Maybe much as he near on loved her for it.

"Don't walk away from me." He repeated, too proud to let it lay out as a beg but intentionally gentling the demand of it, letting himself lean into the traced and taunting smell of her as he angled his jaw closer.

"I'm sorry you lost them." The pulling sincerity she whispered to him was enough to force his eyes shut. "I would have waited if I'd known."

He couldn't have her sweetness in this. Not when he hadn't yet come to take it full into his hands and own it.

"Don't."

He couldn't let her press into how much raging hurt still flexed through aching fingers.

"I know you loved them." She admitted as her head lowered over the way he'd dropped his jaw off to the side in avoidance, once again denying her the chance to see any sign of emotion on him.

His fist jerked tightly into her shirt as he closed his palm against the Glock and dragged it to the side raggedly, his head fractioning closer to her shoulder. And the looseness in his one arm seemed to force a farther tightness into the other, drawing their bodies flush as he finally laid his forehead into her shoulder.

"We can't keep doing this." That intentionally forced blankness was washing her tone whitened, "You were right. I won't win. History doesn't lie, remember?"

"I'm changing history." There was a slowly made certainty in the way he lifted his head, eyes glossy in unexpected almost tears. "Tell me y'don't want the money."

"I don't want the money." Ally told him tightly, a guilted grayness layering her features.

His jaw lifted enough that he was too close for her to focus on the sudden regained calmness in his eyes, her head angling slightly down. "Now tell me y'don't want me."

Her head lifted so quickly, so furiously, that he suddenly remembered exactly what it was like to hear her moan against his jaw.

"Go home, Filip." Betrayal was the accusation of her scraped tone. "Go back to your club."

"You tell me, Ally." He nodded as he turned his mouth dragging against hers, not kissing but just letting his lips wipe hers. "Say it again."

"I hate you." She was shattered and swallowing glass shard words.

He'd broken her as close to crying as he'd been.

"I know." The nod he gave her was as gentle as the weight of the words against her mouth before he leaned into a kiss that gave him the taste of the moan he'd been missing. She wasn't as pliant in her return as she'd been before but the stroke of his tongue on hers had her leaning into his pulling hand and he shuddered a breath into the way he pulled his mouth from hers. His forehead rounded down against hers before he breathed himself still.

"I needed t'know." The accent shaded the words slurring as he loosened his fist from her shirt, reaching for her hand and laying the gun back into her palm.

Her fingers closed against it but loosely and he dropped both palms to catch her other hand up as well, shifting quickly as she slackly watched him in a tired vacancy of emotional energy. He dug a gloved palm into his pocket, drawing out the rings she'd questioned him about, closing them into his palm and squeezing against them a moment before laying them into her waiting hand. The sharp exhale she made against the movement had him lifting his head to catch her sad eyes with his.

"Whether I want you or hate you?" she begged the question into the way he leaned his hands off her slowly, letting one boot break him down to the sidewalk, leveling her above him again.

"Both, I suppose." Gloved fingers traced her bared wrist before he turned away from her, his shoulders slung achingly low as he moved back toward his bike.


	2. Chapter 2

Tig lifted his head into the quick nodding he gave the boys as they watched him move into the room, a frown hedging his features as he realized they'd been locked out of church once again. He wiped against his mouth and down, squinting into the tightly closed door before he tipped his head toward it in questioning.

"Talkin' to a woman." Montez shrugged off as he frowned over the paperwork that was laid out in front of him, his dark eyes chocked up full of frustration. "Called the landline half an hour ago. He called her back on the burner."

"Jarry?" Tig asked tightly, not realizing he'd hushed his voice on her name until Montez looked up with a questioning glance.

"Naw," the younger man stretched back in the chair, turning his head back into the way Quinn was reading over his shoulder. "right?"

"No." Quinn shook off in a tone much softer than it seemed he was physically capable of using. "Irish."

"Fuck." Trager's eyes slid closed, head shunting back on his shoulders as a sudden aching shot behind his eyes. "Fiona?"

"That's the ex, right?" Montez asked quietly, a cautious glance toward the closed door before he shook his head. "No."

"Maureen." Quinn offered as he stretched his hand out to pick up a code regulation pertaining to TM, leaning back in his own chair so he could read it. "She asked for him specifically."

"Ashby? Of course." Tig caught against the back of the nearest chair and turned it tightly around, letting his long legs cage the sides as he shook his head in disdain. "That gash has to stir shit up when it's already been flushed. She say anything else?"

"Kings are less than pleased." Quinn murmured quietly over the table, head lifting up into the shunting of the door as it opened.

"No shit. Enlightening, ain't she?" The older man straightened his spine up as Telford stepped far enough out the door to catch his glance, a sharp pointing aimed in his direction.

Tig nodded and pressed back up from the chair, catching the confusedly searching glances the other two gave him as he followed his President back into the room, tucking the door closed behind the both of them. There was a ragged weariness weighing down the other man's shoulders that didn't seem to be going lightened any time soon.

"Can't keep closing the door, Chibby."

"Can for this." Chibs' voice tweaked sharply to the side, his hands catching along his hips as he stayed turned away from Trager. "Ashby."

"I heard."

"Connor's an unacceptable front man." Chibs stepped into the President's seat, fingers catching on it before pulling it out, his body still unmoving as he stared over it. "They'll inform us of his replacement."

Trager snorted a derisive noise between them, banking into his own seat so that he could tap nudging fingers into the Scot's hip, nodding him down into the chair as they caught glances against each other.

"In the meantime, they're considering what measures t'take in response to our egregious actions." Chibs blew out a breath, his glance focused forward on the table.

"Why's Maureen the one telling you all this?"

"Not s'posed to know yet, Tiggy." The other man tipped him a sidelong glance, emotion suddenly flooding back into eyes that had been blocked blank. "She's got Kerrianne at her place. Needed to know where I landed on keeping her there a bit. She was waitin' on Fi."

"Christ." A suddenly sweated paleness sheened over Trager's face that Chibs appreciated more than he'd expected he would. "Can Fiona balance this out? If she throws weight? She can tell them you've got a lot of distance here, Chibs. They trust her."

"Don't know how much." Telford shook off, jaw tampening down. "Kerrianne's been spendin' too much time with Trinity. She's gettin' too fuckin' smart, Tig. Fiona hasn't been leashing her as much. Can't. She's grown."

"Chibs - "

"Bein' young in that world is settin' the very fires that burn you up." The Scot murmured back toward the center of the table. "I should've brought her home."

"Home isn't necessarily any better, brother." Tig murmured softly. "You should talk to Fiona."

"Fiona and I don't much talk any more and y'know it." Chibs banked him a hazed glance, his face fleeting back to pale. "And it took me well enough time to get past it before… Jesus, I search them out."

Tig took a slow swallow, searching his friend's profile before exhaling a blown breath past pursed lips, "Aw, fuck, Chibby. You got a twisted up love for that damn-crazy-female shit. Always have."

A chuckle that could only be caged as a low grade hysteria came off the other man's lips, brown eyes breaking toward blue, "Fuckin' lighthouses, bringin' me home."

"Yeah, to the institution." Tig matched the wearied laughter, shaking his head as he let it soften quiet between them. "You get to talk to your kid?"

"No." Chibs softened off, shaking his head from it. "She didn't know Maureen was talking to me. Figured she'd bolt if daddy was callin' after her."

"They know about Jax?"

"Every charter knows about Jackson and bad news bleeds out." Chibs shunted off. "Aye, they know."

"So she knows she's the new President's daughter and she's runnin' around with John Teller's kid." Tig nodded slowly, his ringed fingers tiredly wiping down his cheeks and off his jaw. "Yeah, that's, uh…"

"I know."

"Okay," the darker of the two let his palms press the table, rings clicking against the worn wood as he laid his shoulders back into the chair on a nod, "what else, Prez?"

Chibs cast him an angled glance of near on annoyance at the term before swallowing down on it, "We need the kids back here."

"Nero isn't gonna - "

"I don't care what Nero wants." Chibs shunted off between them tightly, fingers lifting off the table in a wipe of frustration, "Wendy'll need to get things sorted with Children's Services. I don't want this t'become an issue. Needs to be settled straight for the boys. Yeah?"

"Yeah," Tig murmured into the other man's jaded tightness, breathing in slowly through his nose as he studied the frowning features and deepening scars. "we'll make sure it's calm and easy."

"Jarry's holdin' off on it." Telford murmured quietly, his glance still glazed. "She figured they were with Wendy, let it ride. Don't know how long she'll be able to fence it, though."

"You talk to her again?"

The Scot's head turned away from his Vice President, jaw flicking a little as he bit down and shook his head minutely, "Again from which time?"

Tig shrugged as he pushed slowly up from the chair, hand catching a squeeze into Telford's shoulder as he started a step around him and toward the door, "Again could be better than not at all."

"Doubtful."

"You want me to call them in?" Tig motioned toward the door. "We'll hash out the Kings and the boys?"

Filip gave him a slow nod of agreement, "Keep the crazy women portion to yourself, Tiggy."

Tig gave him a wide grin, shrugging thin shoulders up, "Why? They already know."

* * *

><p>"I just need to get some of his things." She lifted her hands freely from her sides, fingers up and spread as she met the obviously accusatory and gauging glance the large man was giving her. "Just for the viewing. Call Filip if you have to. I'm not starting anything."<p>

His eyes had pinned a little thinner at the use of Telford's name and there had been an obvious flinching in the muscles of his shoulders. Quinn continued a searching glance over the way she'd intentionally showed up at the garage in her own vehicle, her own clothes, no gun or badge on her belt. She'd parked out edged toward the gates and waited by the car, watching the way the younger men had sent the most physically imposing in her direction, Rat a few slow and methodical steps behind him. And she appreciated the decision more than they probably assumed she would. Because there was still a trip wire in the back of her head that said Quinn was the safety, the guard. He was the wall they'd built before the Scot. And something in her still wanted him safe behind an obviously imposing and capable brother. She didn't for one breath believe that he was any sort of safe when it came to her – but at least he was guarding something she had maybe even treasured.

Ally lifted a glance over Quinn's face, letting her features go soft and more than honest as she shook her head, knowing that he'd seen more far than enough to know when she was relaxed and when she wasn't. He'd been the one to see the spectrum of angry to flush to vulnerable and back.

"C'mon, Quinn." She shook her head as her hands dropped wearily to her sides, "This is real life shit. I'm not playing. I just need to see if he had a suit or something."

"You should have called first." His voice was so surprisingly soft for how huge a man he was and she nodded an accepting acknowledgment into it.

"You think he's gonna take my calls? He hasn't in days." Ally murmured into it, keeping her voice threaded low as Rat took a cautious step up closer at the lowering of her voice. "He's letting me do this. For Unser. I just wanted to get it done with minimal fallout. Me and him? Exploding all over this place? It's the last thing either of us need."

His silence was actually surprisingly comfortable, because it had already been a deafening background noise before.

"You know that, Quinn." She nodded certainty toward him.

A distasteful swallow made his lips press together tightly as he nodded, angling a slow step aside as he waved toward the trailer that was aside in the lot. "Half an hour. Rat'll go with you."

"I'd rather it was you." She caught the sharply angled way the both of them slapped surprised glances in her direction. "No offense."

"Fuck that. I'm offended, Sheriff." Rat snorted toward a sadistic amusement, his face tipping darkly accusatory rather than humored. "Of all the women in this town, you're throwin' me shade? That's twisted shit coming from Sanwa's most loyal and trusted, sister."

"Yeah? Well, he's already seen more of me than you ever will, Georgie." She flicked tightly at him, feeling her back kick up straight as Quinn leaned between the two of them, his large hand already curling her arm as he half dragged her toward the trailer.

"No wonder the fucker cries in his sleep!"

She let the larger of the two press her toward the Airstream as the other man's words slapped at their backs, blowing out a rugged breath of flashed annoyance. Ally kept her steps paced up with his long stride and slowly pulled her arm up from him fingers, a shaky hand dragging her hair back from her face as she caught the nearly secretly smirking way Quinn was angling a glance down over her as they neared the rickety metal steps.

"What?" she asked as he leaned in to pop the door open, jerking hard against the metal catch until it squealed a bend and snapping break under the bunch muscled pull of his arm. "I'm sorry. Okay? I couldn't help it."

Quinn tugged the door open as he shook his head, waving her forward, "I think that's a repetitive issue that you should probably make a priority of addressing, Sheriff."

"Not being able to help myself?" she snorted as she took the steps quickly, "No shit."

"He misses you."

The quiet words that were sent up behind her were so softly woven and prayer like that she stalled up in the doorway of Unser's trailer, hand catching the frame of it as her lungs snapped closed from accepting oxygen. Ally bit into the way her throat prickled as she turned her head to the side, eyes driven shut to avoid the knowing way he could so otherwise silently be their judgment. She wanted to bend into an agreement, an admission that she was somewhere in the middle of missing too. But she couldn't bring herself to confess sins to a man who would still unapologetically and so very silently put a bullet in her head if Telford told him to do so.

"Yeah?" she pulled her hand from the trailer edge. "He's got a hell of a way of showing it."

"Half an hour." He repeated as he lounged his large shoulders forward, leaning into the metal railing.

Ally finally tripped a glance back at him. "Not gonna watch me?"

"Do I need to?" there was a weariness in the bulky frame at the bottom of the steps and she couldn't stop the sway of sympathy she felt as she shook her head. "I've seen more than enough then, thank you."

* * *

><p>"She's too goddamn cocky." Rat aimed a sharp point after the car as he stepped back into the garage, taking the paperwork that Chucky was handing him with tightly gripping fingers and a shake of the head. "She keeps startin' shit with everyone and I'm takin' it to the table."<p>

"She wasn't starting anything. And that would be incredibly stupid." Rane shunted off as he kicked a dolly half up under the jacked SUV. "But then you are an idiot."

"He's put her in her place before and I don't doubt that - "

"How about you just shut the fuck up about it?" Quinn's hand slapped up onto the side of the vehicle as he turned the other man a hard glance. "Let it settle, Rat. Christ."

The smaller man's eyes went darkened up as he dropped the paperwork onto one of the work benches, Chucky's eyes catching between them in a nervous caution. "He was playin' her, Quinn."

"The fuck he was. They gutted each other, okay?" The larger man shot back tightly, face a sudden pass of sure and plain composure as he lifted a hand between them. "Let it settle. The last goddamn thing you wanna mention at that table right now is that woman. Trust me."

"You got a thing for the Sheriff?" Rat taunted at him. "What? Is that pussy bourbon flavored or somethin'? Jesus Christ."

"I wouldn't necessarily talk about her like that either." Chucky murmured softly at the younger man's shoulder, his face panning serious as he cocked his glance back between them again. "Especially if he's around to hear it."

"Seriously?" Rat lifted his hands in exasperation. "You're all insane."

"You're insane if you sit down with him and give him an ultimatum about how to deal with her." Quinn finally turned back toward the car. "Because, right now, his solution is gonna be physical. And probably land on your face."

"You're tellin' me that he was all in on that?"

"I'm not saying that. Not sayin' all in." Quinn shunted off in frustration, leaning down to drop back onto the dolly as Rat handed him down a work light to hook under the SUV, his booted feet clipping against cement to roll him under the engine. "I just don't think he was fuckin' with her head. He was right there with her, man. He was the same but completely fucking different at the same time. I dunno how to explain it."

The continued silence from outside the car made him uncomfortably shrug as he stared up into the innards of the engine block. "She just made him different, man."

"Not different. She just lets him have both halves of himself." The dropped run of Trager's voice was both quiet but sounding intentionally hard from out from above the car. "You boys got nothin' else to do with your mouths than run them?"

Tig's voice was banked closer as he angled down along the side of the car. "Cuz I got a dick that could use sucking."

"It's true, Tigger." Quinn muttered as he lifted his hands into the engine, otherwise shutting up in the conversation as he realized that both the others had ditched him to Trager's pressing.

"It is." The older man's hand clipped against his knee lightly, pressing weight there as he crouched a brightened blue glance under the car. "Why we diggin' this shit up?"

"Jarry picked up some of Unser's stuff." Quinn dropped the back of his head into the ridged edging of the dolly. "Why I always gotta be the one to watch that woman fuck us?"

"Naw," Tig's palm squeezed against his knee. "He gave her this one, Quinn. Gave it to her without a fight. They're just pullin' on each other's edges. So next time I'll watch, yeah? Make a home video. That make ya happy?"

"Like there's gonna be a next time." Quinn snorted softly.

The darkened chuckle of twisting laughter Trager tripped out before rising turned his head to the side and he watched the other man's boots shift away on sturdy steps, "There will be. Just wait."

* * *

><p>Being at the head of the supposedly full line, it had brought up a mixed up duality of pride and skin crawling sorrow for what was missing. It'd laid on him a flush that he couldn't even blame the sun for and there was a rawness in his eyes that the glasses were having a hard time shielding. But the ride itself. It felt a little like the only sure home he had for the moment. So he pushed it a little harder, tipped into the passing lane on a quick forward glance that had his jaw stepping higher. He caught the faint jacked sound come up behind him on the right and smiled to the side reflexively, catching the cocked way Tig was watching him as they both overtook a sedan. Chibs paid his pacing with a cocked glance before he thrummed the bike faster, grinning widely into the way Tig matched the move and followed the sway back into their lane. He cut a tight enough turning glance to know that at least Rat was tightened up in line with them and he'd no doubt that Hap was lined behind him. He just turned a catching smile back forward, gunning another round faster, knowing they'd be at his back.<p>

* * *

><p>"What the hell was that?" Rat knocked his helmet off with a swipe to the back of it, his other hand flung in their direction. "I think I pissed myself three exits back."<p>

Chibs just caught the grinning shake of the head Tig gave him as he pulled his sunglasses off, hooking them into his cut. "Boy's a little edgy, Tigger. Y'sure he'd cut it as Captain?"

"I didn't say I wanted that patch on 'im." Tig cast off with a tone just as mockingly loud and clipping bright, "I said he was gonna have to thumb wrestle Quinn to land it. Or suck my dick. Whichever comes first."

Chibs just grinned into the taunting his Vice President was laying over the younger man, flicking a glance toward the water as he exhaled and laid his glance back between the two of them. Rat's head was lifted a tipped angle, his lips parted to speak but tripped up silent as he caught the threading implication of their teasing. He just waved a knowing finger between them as he squinted into a half annoyed and half smirking silence. Telford caught the way Happy was tucked along his side, smirking as he shook his head slowly back and forth.

"Aye, quiet." Telford grinned back toward Rat. "Good choice."

"You're gonna re-institute the Road Captain patch?" the younger man asked gently, the words still catching the attention of the other men as well, their heads all turned in his direction in a way that made him shift his shoulders a little.

Chibs just gave off a smirking shrug as he turned his glance away from them, jaw lifting into the SUV that was drawing up to meet them, squinting into the way Tyler was giving him a nod from the back. "Might do. That's a table vote, though. Might start watchin' that mouth as it runs ahead of you, boy."

"Secretary oughta be settled too." Tig was flanked against his other side in a previously surprisingly silent shift of his lean body and Chibs tightened his shoulders back, finding the sudden clutching proximity edging him a little claustrophobic. Their suddenly leaning attention was a shifting that he hadn't yet found footing for and it was clipping down on the release the ride had finally offered him.

"I know." He murmured tightly as he lined his steps toward the vehicle, head lifted into the way Tyler was already leaned against it in waiting, "One damn step at a time, Tiggy."


	3. Chapter 3

"Anwer it." The hushed comforting tone Tig was using rubbed on his already hitched annoyance and he glared from the screen of the phone directly toward the other man.

Chibs cocked him a hardened glance, flicking dark eyes toward the other men before looking back. "Don't start in."

"Answer her, Chibby." Tig's voice welled quiet and went veering toward an almost impatient pleading, concern lightening up his eyes toward crystal before he turned toward his bike. "She's makin' peace."

"Tigger." His warning tasted thick on his tongue, heavy as he exhaled, the phone going off once again in his clenched up palm as he let the other hand curl the bike handle.

The suddenly impatient way Trager flung back around from his Dyna made his lanky limbs clench up even as the other men took a few well timed and knowing steps away from their clipped conversation. "Chibs."

The tipping between them was verging on crossed as they blocked toward each other.

And he couldn't bring himself to shunt away the closest love he had left on a gamble of too big pride and a woman he couldn't seem to shake a wanting for.

"We got a long fucking road ahead, brother. She's your wayside this ride, and ya damn well know it." Tig sharpened a pointing toward the phone, voice clipping into a hardened but intentionally graded quietness as he leaned over the Scot's bike. "It's your ship now and that's your goddamn lighthouse. Ignore it and you're gonna crash on us. And I'm not doin' this shit alone. I won't."

The problem was that, anymore… there was next to never a lie in the other man that Chibs couldn't read. And he wasn't catching one in the desperately exhausted blue that was aimed in his direction.

He thumbed the phone quickly in resigned acceptance, turning a darkened glance off of Trager's bright blued sincerity as he forced his steps away with a hushed tone. "Aye. Whattcha need?"

"Your voicemail." There was a softly breathing surprise in her voice and it went echoing over the line and through the rattling of his lungs. "I expected your voicemail."

"You'd rather I hung up then?" he exhaled roughly into impatience. "Make up your goddamn mind, Ally."

"Depends on whether or not you're gonna keep using that tone." The sudden sharpness of her response twitched an unexpected smile onto his lips, jaw dipping to bite down on it as he forced himself breathing past the fact that even in her annoyance, she'd regained a confidence in the way she clashed into him. It laid a comfort over his skin that he ached into. That brandished up flare of her self righteous, haughty, ever-the-fucking-dramatic spin-out.

And, at the least, it wasn't a cagey disgust. Yet.

He softened his voice into a slow neutrality, sighing into it. "What, Althea?"

"I scheduled Unser's services. I thought you should know."

He nodded slowly, exhaling to drive his voice gentler than the tension in his hands, "Okay, I'm roadside. Call Scoops. Give it t'Chucky for me, yeah?"

There was an unsure silence between them and it treaded his boots still, "Yeah, sure."

"He knows the calls. He'll handle it for me." He told her with a nod. "I gotta go."

"You always do, Filip." And there it was. That slap of sickened degradation.

He rolled his eyes as he hung up on her and turned back toward the bikes.

* * *

><p>"You gimme that boy." He hadn't even taken the gloves from his fingers before reaching into the way Wendy was moving toward all of them as they leaned off their bikes, her steps slow and stilted unsure as he tentatively pressed his fingers into Thomas' back.<p>

She seemed to hesitate into leaning the child toward him, but Chibs closed his palms sturdily into the child's sides, lifting the boy from her and turning him warmly into his chest. He turned a hand out against her leading wrist to squeeze against her caution before angling his face tightly into the child's shifting. He caught the way Nero was drawing Abel slowly toward them, Tig's shift toward them from his bike quick and intent as he finally let his eyes close into the too sweet smell of baby soap and mulled formula. He startled a little into the way Wendy's hand dug clinging into the leather of his shirt but he didn't lift his head from Thomas' grunt at his ear, allowing her to pull them into a tightened up knot.

"I'm sorry, love." His lips were rubbing the apology against the boy's softened up hair but he caught the red eyed wincing she made as his glance lifted slightly. "I'm sorry."

"I don't understand, Chibs." The mumbling shock on her was enough to force a swallow down his constricted throat as Tig stepped into their closed up space, Abel's head downed onto his shoulder in avoidance while his small hand clung into leather. "I don't."

"I'm sorry." He shook his head marginally as he shunted his sleeve carefully from the pulling of her fingers, no other words filtering past the haze that was suddenly riding the world that was caving in on him as Nero stepped into her back.

He turned sharply away from them because he had nowhere else to go, one hand clutched under the child as the other curved up around the back of the boy's head, limbs heaving suddenly heavy as he turned out a few steps. But he couldn't force himself to keep going any farther away from them. But he couldn't go back into the way they were looking at him either.

His body reflexively graced into a crouch, curling the still grumbling child into his chest as he tainted another chanted round of apologies into the boy.

* * *

><p>"You staying here? Want me to leave Hap?"<p>

Chibs nodded slowly into gentled agreement, head turning away from the sound of Abel's voice melding with Wendy's from the living room, his head lifting into the way Trager's slim hips rounded the extended counter so that they were both tucked tightly along it. He gave him a forced smile, pushing the half bottle of Jack across the counter with a forcefully slow exhale from battered lungs.

"Send Hap home, though." Chibs murmured, eyes affectionately following the way his brother spun the cap on the bottle with a sharp break of the opposite palm, swilling down a long swallow before curling the bottle into the center of his chest. "We'll be fine."

"Naw, I don't want you alone. Nero's staying at Diosa." A far off glancing into the center of Teller's kitchen betrayed his still stilted brokenness. "Couldn't go back to Gem's."

"We'll be fine, Tiggy." He leaned forward and twisted sidelong on the counter, lifting his arm against the other man's shoulders before he used the other hand to pry the bottle back for a long swallow of his own. "You go on. Send Happy home. Day's done, brother."

"You call me." There was a soft demand in the other man's voice though his glance was still distantly forward, his hands hooked into the front of his belt for a forced attempt at some kind of relaxation. "If something happens. If you need anything."

"I will." Chibs just grinned into the pushing, his brother's worry drawing his kiss against the hazy mess of dark hair. "We're good with Marcus and Tyler and we'll deal with the Irish. Triad's broken and the AB's heeled, yeah? Get some sleep. You tell Venus I say hello."

A suddenly cautious brightness of blue turned up his way. "Yeah. Okay."

Chibs gave him a saddened smile before taking another long swallow off the bottle, his shoulders slanting at wearied angles as his body settled back harder into the edge, boots planted flat to keep from shifting. Tig's sudden and swift shift off toward the center of the room broke the intentionally stalling comfort they'd been leaning into each other and the Scot palmed the bottle back to the counter, drawing himself up onto it so that he could turn the whiskey back into his palms with a nod toward the other man.

"Get right with her Chibs." Tig's shoulder swayed back softly into the quieted words, his head turning but eyes still outwardly unfocused into his muddled up thoughts, "It's not just about you two and your goddamn mess, ya know? Wouldn't hurt to have her on our side. We could really bring it back this time. But it's a pretty small window and it's gonna close quick."

"I know." Chibs nodded an equally quiet agreement, his head angling as Wendy's voice caught up from the living room and then faded.

"I mean, she's crazy – but she wants the same thing we want right now." Trager lifted a hand into exasperated explanation, "And it's not like we can pass judgment on crazy."

"You're not sayin' a thing I don't already understand, Tigger." He lifted the bottle but didn't drink, swaying it between them slightly, "She left me. Wasn't the other way around. It was her decision."

A lazed glance of half annoyance and near accusation laid over Trager's features and the turn of his blue eyes paled the rest of him, knowing clear in the brightness of his arched glance.

"I don't think she meant it." Tig murmured truthfully, "Or she wouldn't keep calling. She doesn't need you to get her job done but she's still in your space. She's giving you plenty of chances."

"And I don't think y'realize what it is to want a woman who despises what y'are when she's not watching." Chibs' darker eyes had downed round the rim of the nearly empty bottle, focusing on the way he'd tucked it between his knees.

"And that's your baggage, brother." The jutting response from his Vice President was full with force but also laden with a sort of teasing softness that was meant to cure and not cut, "You're carrying it into this. Because if she saw you right now… shit. You wouldn't be drinkin' alone like the fuckin' lush you are."

Telford snorted off a head shaking grin, "Go home, Tiggy. Long days comin'. We're ridin' for that funeral tomorrow whether she likes it or not."

"Call her. Tell her the kids are back. Set something up with Children's Services." Tig offered as he started back around the counter's outcropping, his hand catching against Telford's slumped back. "It's even ground. It's something you're both gonna be working for and not against."

There was a slumping shrug in the man's shoulders and it flexed under his fingers as he palmed the patch, "Maybe."

Tig nodded acceptance into the frayed possibility, patting against leather as he started his steps from the kitchen, "I'm gonna tell the boys good night."

* * *

><p>"You realize I have caller ID, right?" The familiar cut of her wiry impatience as she waited, the phone line echoing loud into his ear, it tweaked a near bittersweetened smile on his lips. "What do you need, Telford?"<p>

He exhaled into a smirking as he shunted his ass lower into the center of the couch cushions, sure to edge his boots off the end of it as he centered the sleeping child into his chest, "Hi, darlin'."

"What happened?" There was an educated edging to her voice, wariness in the way she mingled concern and accusation at once into the words.

Chibs just palmed against Thomas' back, rubbing his fingers into the warm breathing that was leveling out the discordant rhythm of his own lungs. "I've got the boys."

"They're safe?"

"Abel's plenty wrecked." He murmured quietly, angling the phone into his jaw and shoulder while he shifted his back flat out onto the couch, both hands hushing comfort against the toddler to keep him from waking, "Keepin' close to Wendy, though. She'll bring 'im back. Small one's sleepin' like an angel still."

"Jesus, good." The relief in her voice was a sort of newness to him, a purity of appreciation that he had neither expected nor experienced all that much. It made him crave another round of it.

Filip let his jaw lay into softened blonde, shutting his eyes into the way the child was rumbling a sleepy noise into him, small fingernails digging on the patches while he lowered his voice even farther into a murmur, "Jackson wanted Wendy to keep 'em. Wanted to know they wouldn't… She won't let these boys come to this, Ally. And I'm of the same mind. They won't be us."

There was a weakness of understanding to her exhalation, "I know you think - "

"Wendy is Abel's mother." He tightened into the veering authority in the tone she was using, driving it quiet with his own. "And Thomas needs her to be his."

"I agree, Filip. I'm not arguing."

The sweetened up smell of the boy on his chest combined with the fact that she'd given her voice over to a certain softness had him nearer to sleep than he'd been in days and his eyes burned him for closing, "Will y'help her, please? With Children's Services? Needs t'be as easy as possible for them."

"Of course." The sure agreement of her was surely an illusion due to the fact that they were at least discussing the inherent goodness of innocent children, but he let his weariness lay long into the temporary peacefulness. "Yeah."

Chibs exhaled slowly into silkied blonde, "Set a time? After the funerals, yeah?"

"Okay." He damn near heard a hopeful smile on the tipping of her gentled tone, "Yeah. I'll call in the morning. Let them know she's been in contact and that she's being pro-active. We'll make it happen."

"Okay." He felt his shoulders settle on their own, lowering deeper into the cushion, "I'm ridin' that funeral tomorrow, Althea. You settle yourself on that now. Samcro's taking him home too."

"Filip?" Ally's voice warmed over the line in a way that tricked him into keeping his eyes closed on a lie of softly woven security. Too close to the murmurs she'd given him in middle morning darkness with her hands at his cheeks. Too safe and familiar. Too taunting of her ability to be his sanctuary when they were still too busy punishing each other for being themselves.

"Aye?"

"Try to sleep." At least there was still a tracing of almost affection to her tone, even if it was dry enough to be a tint too commanding.

He couldn't keep the saddened smile from rubbing the child's head as the line went dead and his shoulders flexed back toward sudden tightness, thumb jamming the phone off as he sighed, "Sure."


	4. Chapter 4

"You don't seem at all surprised." The tone Patterson gave her was at once knowing and sardonically amused, a twisting of control added as the shorter woman leaned closer.

"I am not surprised." Ally laid quietly between them, her head unturning from the way at least a handful of leather laden men were blocked along the opposite side of the funeral group, their pacing a few steps back from the rest of the crowd. "They have every right to be here. None of them pulled the trigger."

"None of them would have stopped it from being pulled, either."

Ally flinched into the statement, pushing her sunglasses back into her hair as she caught the way Telford's eyes lifted warily to hers, the sun brightening the brown. "I'm not so sure of that anymore, District Attorney."

The other woman snorted of a quieted noise, "I am. You remember what they're capable of, Ally."

She just exhaled a sighed noise of bent up frustration, "You don't need to remind me, District Attorney. They already have."

* * *

><p>He watched the other man's hesitation of movement with such a surely made understanding that even he couldn't move away from the way they'd lined along the back of the small group. The others had stepped away at first and continued on as he'd jerked his head toward the bikes, aiming them back toward the cemetery drive. Tig turned a glance into the way the Scot was loosely standing before him, thumbs hooked into his pockets and squinting past the sun even as his sunglasses shaded his eyes. Trager lifted both hands to stroke along his jaw before biting down on the proverbial bullet and stepping into the silence Telford was holding as a shield between them.<p>

"It's your club now, President." Tig let his voice lower tightly into his friend's shoulder, jaw inching to the side as he dug against the other man's cut. "And nobody at that table is gonna tell you that you can't take what you wanna take right now. I'll make damn sure of it."

"Not goin' there, Tiggy." Chibs shook off, his voice intentionally laden soft but his glance still fixed on the way she'd only made it a few leaned steps from Unser's casket before letting her shoulders lax in pausing. "Not the right time."

"Fuck that. She's waiting for you, Chibs." Trager sharpened between them, tugging into the leather as he leaned into Telford's shoulder, "Not the time? Because Jax is still in your head. But Jax isn't here. He's gone, brother. He's just gone."

The snapped sharpness of the way Telford turned his head into anger would have usually shut him up, but he was too damn tired of waiting for a play to be made. Anything that would level his brother back to where he needed to be. Anything that would bring the President he knew he could have to the head of the table.

"He had both." Tig hissed his whisper low, catching the turn of the Scot's head as he looked back toward the way she'd aimed her back at them. "And when he didn't anymore, he made sure you couldn't either."

The difference in their loving of Teller was made blatantly plain in the way Telford's jaw flicked tight before his head shook minutely, "Don't you - "

"I'm not wrong." Trager interrupted tightly, "Am I?"

The other man's silence may as well have been an outright admission of assent.

"Am I, Chibs?" He murmured an evening gentleness into his argument, scaling back the emotion that had rigged his tone tight, "I know you love him, but he used her like a goddamn leash around your throat. And you know it."

"I'm not arguin'." The younger man breathed off tiredly.

Tig just nodded into the way he tugged tighter into the leather of the cut, "You've got us. And I'm tellin' you that you can have her. Nobody is gonna stop you."

"Tiggy." He panned a turning glance of worry fringed brown between them.

"You've got us, brother." Trager leaned the words tighter, nodding into the assertion before dipping his head toward the Sheriff, "And that's yours. Just fucking take it before it's gone."

"Jesus, this is just so you'll shut the hell up on it." Chibs shunted his brother off his leaning angle as he stepped forward, head turned slightly as he pushed them apart. "She shoots me and it's on you."

"I'll take that chance, Chibby." Tig cocked him a grin as his hands came up, "Not sure she could pack any heat under that skirt."

Telford's back turned glance went wide into a sorrowfully cocked grin, "Happen t'know you're wrong about that."

"I'll take your word for it."

* * *

><p>"Rat." He smiled wide as he turned his hand up toward the younger man, glance still lifted toward his President's movements, "You owe Quinn a Benny."<p>

"You think I carry that sorta cash on me?" the younger man shot off, shunting his boot heel back and forth in the drive's dust, his lanky arms crossing his chest in what damn near looked liked a pouting.

"Pay the man." Tig grinned a glance back as he drew his sunglasses on, watching Telford's slowly laid steps pause as he cradled along the side of her. "And don't be a little bitch about it."

"I'm waitin' to see if she slaps him first." Rat shot off between all of them. "We don't know how that's gonna end yet."

"It's gonna end with him comin' back full force to the head of the table." Tig tugged his gloves from his pocket, letting his boots carry him toward his bike, head lifted into watching an approaching car that stalled far off. "And you know what he's like when he's focused."

Happy's voice was a thready quietness into the conversation, "You really think this is smart?"

"I think he's your President and he's just taking back what already belongs to him. You got a problem with that, Hap?" he shot tightly into turning a glance over the other man.

"I don't trust her." Happy shrugged into the sullen admission.

"You're not in this club to trust her. And you're not wearing that patch for her." He pointed accusingly at the Sergeant patch before tugging his gloves on, catching the way the other four had banked back a little in quietness, "That man has only ever been loyal to this club. You trust him?"

Happy's head lifted in a sudden shunting defensive pride, his voice rising harshly, "Yeah. Of course."

"Then fuckin' show it." Tig swayed between all of them as he leaned onto his bike, letting his back settle as he lifted his shoulders on a shake of the head. "It's not junior high anymore, boys. Ya just leveled up. Any complaints about dick can be left in the suggestion box on the way out the goddamn door. Am I clear?"

"Clear." Quinn's softened agreement leveled them all silent.

* * *

><p>Regardless of the fact that he knew the movement would tighten her up into a jerked caution, he couldn't stop the shifting of his guarding hand along the back of her head, gracing her downed hair as he stepped into the side of her already inwardly curled frame. Chibs angled his head sidelong into studying her obvious sadness, letting it lay in the silently damning way she suddenly turned gilded eyes over him.<p>

"You shouldn't have come over here." She accused of him, breathing a bit stilted by the fact her shoulders were tight under his gloved hand and her ribs were clutched up about already tight lungs. "Your club's not gonna appreciate it."

"Aye, my club. Don't you worry about what they think." He cocked a brow into it, casting a glance back to the way most of the officers and others had already left, "Or y'worried about your reputation, Lieutenant?"

Her head snapped following into the way he stepped a prowling angle from her side and around to face her, his fingers gracing off her at the riotously pretty visual volley of her fury. "Jesus. Patterson already knows, Filip."

"Knows how much?" His head angled slowly into a suddenly tentative and near on paranoid questioning.

"Oh, plenty, I'm sure." Her fingers were rubbing on her lips in a nervous fidget, the other arm wrapped against her own torso and making her look leaner than he remembered having seen before, "Don't look at me like that. I didn't… She's not an idiot and I haven't earned all that much loyalty yet. Somebody on my team is looking for an easier step up than I'm willing to offer and hanging my ass out to dry was their first option."

"Ah," he jaw lifted into a certain patient cockiness that made him both more attractive and more infuriating all at the same. "She pinned you, Ally. And y'buckled. That why y'wanted out? Because it got messy?"

The betrayal she laid upon him was meted out by the weight of anger and disgust in her eyes, the flush of those emotions damn near overriding any of softness to the way the sun was tipping the hazeled brown to caramel to golden lit. And the very accusation she leveled at him in a complete silence had his spine jamming straightened, a sickened swill of pride not allowing him to bend into her anger for all that much longer. She'd punished him damn well enough and she was holding this about his head and shoulders like the knife she'd already jammed between shoulder blades once.

Her eyes thinned in a pretty play of fury, but he stayed still against the onslaught of how lustfully damning her anger usually was to him, "I… are you kidding? You ducked out of this before I - "

"I went nowhere." Chibs sharpened the words so tightly between them that she flinched, her shoulders so weak in their backwards draw that he realized she was veering away from the way he'd caught jerking against her hip, gloved fingers digging on black fabric.

"You were in a completely different world, Filip." She whispered into a sudden sorrowed whisper, fear and anger falling out in place of a certain composed despondency. "You shut me out."

The aching on him was a physical thing that preceded the subtle strength of the way he slowly forced his fingers unclenching from her, his head turned at an angle as a mangling of emotions flicked through the darkness of his eyes. Ally watched the understanding of her assertion discolor the usually sweetened brown, danking them even darker toward black as he shook his head away and then bit down on a glancing back.

His fingers stroked the lay of the silken shirt she was wearing before he dropped his hand away from her tautened muscles, intentionally letting his thumbs hook safely into his pockets as his shoulders angled forward. "No uniform?"

"Felt like a lie." She explained into a breathy quietness. "Especially to him. Thank Christ he never asked about you. I don't doubt he knew."

"Y'really liked him." He finally felt a near on smile rake his lips, glance lifting to catch into the wistful shrugging she made in response, dipping his head forward in an affectionate softening. "Didn't you?"

"He was kind. And a good cop. Noble, sorta." Her glance had faded toward a lowered vacancy, "He was what I had. I don't have anybody else here, Telford."

"That was your choice." He hedged into her, biting onto her otherwise unspoken accusation.

"No, it wasn't." Ally's head drew back up with a fury that rounded pride on him, her eyes pinning dark in a way that had his confidence in her control balanced. "It was yours, President."

"Stop it, Althea." He whispered as he shook his head into slow surrender. "Just stop. You were gettin' too close t'the center of this fallout. I needed to set you apart from it."

"Filip, now you are the center of this fallout."

She was too true on the mark and it laced his ribs closed up around his lungs. But she was also unknowingly very wrong in her deduction. Because every call he'd ignored and every step he'd placed farther between them had seemingly circled him right back to pulling her central pivot to his spiraling. She was the pinned point, the unmoving. Everything else could spin but she was stillness – and he craved the moments when she didn't add to the damn dizziness. When she took him closer than either of them should have been to the other and closed him comfortably into a sure still safety.

"You're right. Y'should walk away, love." The despondent admittance that veered off tensed lips soured into breathless as she took a shunted and surprised step back, her head shaking as he reached rapidly into the almost turn of her shoulder. "Christ, but I don't want y'to, Althea. Don't."

Desperate sorrow from too heavily stacked up loss had aged him farther than anger ever had. It made the weariness on him so visible in the lines around his eyes that the distraction of them had the rise of his hands jolting a surprise on her that had her shoving into his chest hard even as he stepped hard into her. She couldn't block the movement, though. Not when he was palming her cheeks in a way that proved privately intimate rather than violent, his eyes holding hers in a sudden rattled stillness.

"Don't." He shook his head just a fraction, his gloves a sudden softness against her flushed cheeks that she couldn't have pulled away from if she'd damn well tried. "Ally, don't."

"You're already killing me." She whispered hurt into the way he was drawing closer, her eyes sliding closed as she unexplainably and guiltily leaned into his pulling and the press of his hips angling up along hers. "You just don't care."

"Liar." He hissed before digging her closer, driving his mouth roughly onto hers as his fingers dug back, catching along her ears as he forced his tongue between her lips. And the snap of her lungs ratcheting tight as she answered that force with fury, it kept him balanced.

Because she didn't once back down from his roughness, didn't shade from the flare of the way he groaned the weight of their combined rage onto her tongue. She tasted it from him just as much as he could still taste the trace of wanting from her, bitterness and salted wounds faded from how sweet she was in her answering. The pliant lean of her hips into his was a grace he hadn't expected and the soft surety of her hands curling his arms drove him tighter into the way he sucked along her tongue before raking his teeth on it. His lungs loosened near on completely from their suspended tightness as she licked along his lip as they broke apart the kiss in a quieted agreement of shifting. His hands didn't turn from her and she didn't let their locked-up hand-hold shift even as she leaned fuller into the front of him.

"Shit." The sharply accented exhalation he roughed against her cheek was as much made of surprise as it was a sort of surrender.

Not once since they'd started had either just let the other walk away.

He'd said it himself, plain in the day as he'd let rage be his defense.

History didn't lie.

"Yeah." She murmured into the unexpected acceptance of the way he looked up at her, holding her glance as he wiped his gloved fingers down off her jaw slowly, "We're screwed. And big picture? I'm more screwed than you. You realize how ironic it's gonna be when they play pipes at my funeral, Scotty?"

"I told you, I'm changin' history." He flinched as he teased a gloved fingertip against a pearled white button, head angling up to hold her glance. "Cuttin' the blood out. Dividing assets. Clean money for my club."

"Filip." Her head shook slightly against believing him.

"We dump the baggage on the young angry men, Althea." Chibs nodded into his softened argument, "Lettin' the Irish whip at me and fightin' for street blocks in Stockton? Dealin' with Nazis? It's not my fuckin' war anymore. Charming will be hush."

The thickly telling swallow that blocked her silent frayed worry on him.

"Y'can hate Jackson, darlin', but that's what he started. We're finishin' it. Give me the time." His eyes were true on her, burning brown that seemed suddenly steady in assurance. "Don't go anywhere, Ally."

* * *

><p>Tig exhaled shakily as he shook his head into pent frustration, cocking a glance back to the car that suddenly had a familiar figure moving from it.<p>

"That stupid… You've gotta be kidding me with this shit." He aimed toward the way Connor Malone was already moving toward him, two unfamiliar men clipping at his heels, "Happy, deal with that. It's not goin' down here."

"You want me to just bounce him out of here?" Happy was already back stepping toward the Irishman, his jaw lifted in questioning.

Tig groaned into questioning his own order, wiping his gloved palm along his jaw as he shook his head, "Naw. Just rattle him a little. He deserves it."

* * *

><p>"Chibs." Trager's voice was a disjointed reality that broke between them and he growled low in his throat against the interruption that was so poorly timed that her fingers laying along his chest seemed a sudden devastating loss as her hand dropped away. "I'm sorry, man."<p>

"We need to talk, Filip." It was Connor's lilting anger that wracked his shoulders as he turned into it, but it was her hand laying along the lower ride of his cut that leveled them even again. "Your wife in one ear, the Priests in the other and the Kings are feckin' silent? They're silent."

"Not the time." Chibs shot off tightly, flicking Trager a sharpened up look that met with the other man's blue eyed apology.

"You signed my warrant, Telford. And you doin' nothin'? Y'set me up to - "

"Y'shut your mouth." He aimed a hand between them, ignoring the pressing presence of the other two as he nodded toward the Irishman. "Of all the ideas you've let leak between your ears, this is the fuckin' dumbest, Con."

"You've gotta be kidding me." A caustic laugh of nothing amusing caged off her throat and he heard the low rattling rage in it from behind him. "The goddamn Irish? Your wife? This… this is - "

"I'll handle this." Chibs lifted a flicked hand in her direction as he turned, annoyance riding his tension tight into already burning muscles.

"Not here." She just shook her head into the demand as her glance clipped toward Malone and back.

"I said I'll handle it, Althea." His hands caught up against her jaw again on a turning nod, letting his hips flush into hers as he intentionally stepped her into the way Tig was moving along her side, "Go, darlin'. Get outta here, yeah? I need you clear of this. Y'cannot be here."

He caught the shied way she pulled her arm from Tig's reaching as she took a slowly laid step back, her eyes fastened up to his tightly as Trager turned along her side.

"Tiggy, get her gone." Chibs shunted off hard, aiming the both of them away as he nodded into her quiet. "I've got it. I mean it."

"You walk him away, Filip." Her arm dropped into the way Trager's fingers gentled along her wrist and circled loosely as he walked her away, her steps still lining surprisingly gracefully backwards on heels in damp grass, "Don't you do this here. Do you understand me? Not here."

"I know." He nodded into turning away from her, hand already rising into the divot of Connor's throat, flexing into the push he gave the other man away from the casket. "This is unacceptable, Connor."

"No, what's unacceptable is your bloody inability to - "

His patience ended with the break of his fist finding a home on the other man's nose.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey," his voice went surprisingly sweetly soft as he curved into her side, aiming her toward the clutch of bikes rather than away, drawing her closer, "hey, doll. Relax."

"Don't." Her shoulder jutted his chest in a way that backed him off a little, drawing a sudden blocking of space around her tensed frame even as she still let him steer her toward the two Harleys at the front. "I'm fine."

"You're not, AJ. But okay." Trager shunted off in an oddly fitting mingling of sympathy and annoyance.

She cocked a jarred glance to the side at the surprisingly endearing nickname, studying the aged lethargy on him as one hand bridged into her lower back, his other prying into her arm with a sort of gentled force as he turned her into his own bike, aiming her down onto the seat with a slow exhalation through his nose.

"You have to let him handle this shit, sweetheart." The leaning lay of pleading he treaded toward her caught up the fired gilding in her glance, but she was patiently quiet in the face of his honesty.

"Jesus, you all do it. Love, doll, darlin', sweetheart. Dogs pissing on their goddamn hydrants."

She shook her head into dropping her glance toward Telford's bike, intentionally keeping her spine straightened up tightly as she crossed her arms on her chest and lifted one leg onto the other. Her lower heel was cocked into the graveled drive, perching her on an arched balance against the seat of his bike that wasn't necessarily unattractive. Tig smirked lightly over her as he wiped his forehead, catching the searching way TO and Rat were only a pace away, the both of them shading glances over their interaction. He cocked a slow look back over her, breathing in to try and work over an acceptable explanation that would calm her and completely stalled and tripped up by the sheared and shattered way she was staring at an empty bike.

"Oh, Jesus. No." Tig shook his head as he lowered his shoulders, trying to catch up her glance even as her jaw firmed to avoid it, his hands shying along her upper arms to cage their interaction, "No, you're doin' the girl thing. Don't do the girl thing. He comes back here and you're crying? Then I'm fucked, Jarry. C'mon."

"I'm not." Her eyes flicked closed into the way her head was slowly shifting back and forth, a tautened breathing leaving her lungs. "I'm fine."

"Sure." Tig tipped his head into watching her face, studying the sharpened angles and lean lines that he hadn't often gotten close enough to really see. "You really didn't wanna end it with him, did ya?"

The aching coaxing of mixed browns and hazeled greens in her eyes lifted into his in a look that panned near on threatening, but also strangely vulnerable. And silently, blatantly, clear in the fact that he was correct.

"You gotta bring him back for me, Jarry. Doesn't matter what you are. It's who you are."

"They're the same." Her eyes suddenly flared up brightly golden in the sunshine and he realized how much softer she they seemed when the full darkness of her hair was down along her jaw. "Jesus, Trager. I'm a cop. That's what and who I am."

"Naw," he shook his head slowly, letting it tip farther to the side in a laxed fight to her sudden angry fervor, an unavoidable smirk tinting his lips. "You're not a cop right now. You're full on angry girlfriend."

"He threatened me, Tig." She flicked at him, her jaw lifting into the straightening of her spine as she brought her shoulders up in an offended writhe of fury. "Jackass."

Tig flicked her an equally accusatory glance. "You were abandoning him. On top of everything he went through that day? You don't even fucking know."

"No, I don't." There was a clipped shading of accusation in her voice and Tig finally lifted his hands from her in an accepting defense of agreement, his jaw firming nearly as tightly as hers. "Do I?"

"Ya really need to know the means if you see what the end of it did to him?" he asked her with a suddenly hushed and thready voice, tone washing low in a way that seemed near on threatening in the close leaning of his lean body. "We need him back. If him fucking you gets it done, I'll video that shit for instant replay, Sheriff."

The thinning of her eyes put them near on the same level. Except that even she could recognize the manic and nervy danger of the way Trager shifted an inch closer as his hands both shunted down jerkily on her bent leg, his eyes brightening in blue as a near feral smile almost made its way completely across his lips.

"Unnecessary." She hissed between them as she cocked her head into the way he was studying her face.

"So was ripping him to pieces."

At least she had the grace to be a margin ashamed as she blew out a breath and turned her head into watching Telford and Malone on the opposite side of the cemetery, their stances blocked apart as they spoke. Tig watched her watch the other man, letting his fingers slowly flex off the way he'd been pressing down onto her, searching over the obviously confused flux of emotions paling her face.

"Thing is, I think he actually likes it." Tig shrugged his hands back up against her arms, sure to keep the movements gentle as he caught the blanked glance she turned back toward him. "You two trigger each other and it makes you both freakishly happy."

"How far down is this Irish problem gonna go?" she murmured quietly as he let his hands drop off her. "I'm not asking – I just mean - "

"Deep." Tig nodded once. "Historical shit, AJ."

"He wants the club out?" she cocked a questioning and scrutinizing look over him.

Tig tipped his head, blinking as he gave her a cocked smirk, "I'm not goin' there. You're gonna have to discuss that with him."

She nodded a wryly knowing smile as her fingers lifted in a gesture of acquiescence, "Of course it's the Irish."

"You worried about Fiona?" he couldn't help the chuckle break off his lips as he took a slow step back, shoulders dipping a little as he caught her glance with his amused look and a shake of the head. "Don't, doll. He's not goin' back there. Trust me."

"But - "

"Trust me." He hushed into a nod. "He's gonna love her. But you could walk away right now and he'd still love you. That's Chibs."

"Bullshit." She breathed a hazed fury up at him, her entire body framing up in lean muscle and nervous edginess.

"He would."

"He doesn't." she argued tightly.

"Uhkay." Tig just grinned a swiftly amused acceptance into her assertion. "He doesn't."

"Don't fuck with me, Trager." She snapped at him, one of her hands dropping to brace the seat of the bike as her shoulders lifted even farther.

"Then stop fucking with him." He responded softly. "Bring him back in or cut him loose and mean it."

"I never let him go." Ally left off a despondent laugh, wiping against the seat without realizing what she was doing it, her glance cagey as she caught the cleared blue of his eyes and shook her head, "How'd we get so deep so fast?"

"He needed a safety." Tig murmured. "And you seem to think you can save him, Sheriff."

"You're terrifying." She told him succinctly.

Trager just gave her a widening grin. "I know."

* * *

><p>Leftover rage was already wiry and lacing everything he owned on himself so tightly that his boots felt weighted down on each full step. And the way she was perched on his brother's bike, back straight and shoulders crowning righteous… it double swayed his steps. Because he was thrown shuntingly slower in his gait by the fact that, even in her self assured and haughty cockiness, she was still there. One long leg crossed over the other in a way that set her a black skirted standard higher than the fact that Tig's bike was road dusted and a bit muddied up by the cemetery drive. The black dress shirt she was wearing was paling her but leaning into the way her hair laid on her shoulders – the emboldened waves of it pulling on a sudden tainted tint of jealousy that made him angle his steps back up to speed. The fact she was comfortably arched on another man's bike while his sat empty beside her did nothing to soothe the angry shunting of his movements.<p>

"Wrong bike, love." He dropped tightly into the way Tig was standing braced between the two Harleys, his hands wracking up his helmet from his own bike. "Rather not see you ridin' his seat any time soon, huh?"

"He put me here." She shrugged up into a matching tightness as the three of them triangulated between the bikes, her body arching to stand into a sudden height that reminded him to take one more look at the sleek black heeled boots she was wearing.

"You just ratted me out." Tig cast between them tightly. "Not cool, Jarry."

Chibs ignored the archly taunting and catty glance she cast toward his friend in favor of letting the hand with the helmet hang, the other palm catching out against her hip to tug her into the still tightly tacked annoyance that still ran through his muscles. He cocked a testing glance into the suddenly sharpened shift of her jaw as she looked back over him, her eyes flickering in a short range challenge that he refused to look away from. Chibs jutted his jaw up once, daring the next movement making on her, knowing that Tig was keeping a charmed and nearly victorious smirking hedged over them as the rest of his club sat still and warily waiting to their bikes.

She blinked before a rueful smile cradled along her lips, eyes darkening into the way he only silently lifted his jaw higher in response, "Did I say you could put your hands on me, Telford?"

"M'not in the mood for playin' anymore, Althea." His grittily hushed whisper wired her spine tight even as he let his angling jaw nearer to hers, the thrusted drive of his tone making her throat flush as he laid a lowness into it. "Make up your mind, love. I've plenty of work t'do."

He was less surprised by the roughened and heat stroked turn of her mouth into his than he was by the way she let the smooth lay of her trim body up into the front of him. Just the bend of her asking for the way he curled her into a slow arc as he answered the equally slow kiss she gave him, her long fingers pried up into leather and digging a hold there as she let him nip along her bottom lip. Chibs let a smirk twitch his lips as she drew her mouth from his and cocked her jaw at an angle of challenging.

"We're not finished talking about this." She murmured low enough to keep most all of them from hearing.

"We've a lotta things unfinished, Lieutenant." He cocked back as he stroked against her hip and then stepped them slowly apart, his fingers fidgeting his helmet back up into both hands as he tipped her a glance, "Come by Jackson's tonight. Y'can see the boys are well."

Ally shifted him a questioning glance. "You sure?"

"That's where he's been sleeping." Trager shunted off between them, grinning into the suddenly sharded glance of reproach Telford gave him in annoyance. "Or, ya know, not sleeping."

"Nobody asked you." Chibs shunted after him tightly, knowing her eyes were riding over the tired lines of his face.

Tig was already leaning onto his bike with a grin. "Common knowledge, Prez."

* * *

><p>"I'm not comfortable knowing that he knew how and where to find you." Quinn's voice laid out over the table with a suddenly quick sureness, a latent aggression in his viced up palms even as his voice stayed true to patience.<p>

Chibs caught the sharpened look Happy cast toward the other man, his shoulders tensing up as he leaned both arms onto the table, "I had him covered."

"Not the point, man." Quinn cast back tightly, his hands clenching even farther in a way that had Chibs matching a concerned but slightly amused glance with Trager. "I'm not stepping on your balls. I'm saying, Connor walked right up on us."

"And a very public funeral is a very public thing, boys." Chibs murmured into a leveling peacekeeping as he let his shoulders lean back into his chair, one arm still stretched into the table as his fingers spread on the wood. "Wouldna been a stretch to know we'd be there. His showin' up wasn't a sign of intelligence, it was dumb fuckin' luck."

"And you didn't have him covered, Sergeant." The large man on Tig's other side tossed off in a grumbling as he leaned back. "You let Tig do it."

"You got a fuckin' problem, brother?"

Happy was already leaned up into the table and Chibs jerked a hand against his wrist, squeezing into the already flexed muscle as he banked Quinn a tiredly cocked glance. "End it. Both of ya."

"Yeah, okay." The shunted agreement Quinn made broke harshly over the table as Happy slouched back into his chair on a grunt.

Chibs caught the cocked smirk Tig was giving him and shook his head into it, letting his fingers loosen from Happy's wrist before exhaling slowly, "The point is that Connor's unhinged. He's not ever been all that even to begin with and the Kings are gonna be an awfully big threat at his back. He's spinning."

"We're out." Tig murmured blankly from beside him, face fixing into a paled frustration as he shook his head. "That was the point of putting him there. Let the Irish deal with the Irish."

"Y'know there's more to it than that." Telford banked him a biting glance. "We put Sambel in a damn precarious position on top of it. Kings are waitin' to see if we move. Sambel's waitin' to see what they're going to do. Shit's gonna land sideways if someone can't hold on the trigger finger."

Tig's eyes were clear on a brightened blue of determination, "Only Irish package I plan on moving in the future would be your daughter."

"Not a bad idea, Chibs." Rat's voice followed up directly after Tig's. "They could use her as - "

"Not a discussion yet." He broke between the both of them. "Not yet."

"You should - "

"I said," he turned his head into the way Tig was pushing at him, "not yet. She's a grown girl and she doesn't really know her own da. She's got no reason to trust me over her mother's judgment, all right? Fi will know if it's necessary. I gotta trust that."

"We should at least touch base with Sambel again." Montez's voice was a near on questioning intrusion but there was enough confidence in his concern that Chibs gave him a nodding smile of agreement. "I mean… they're the ones that are gonna take the worst hits on this."

"They're going to need a new pipeline for cash." Rat nodded into the other man's assessment.

"We've made it clear that finding new funding is a charter responsibility." Tig retorted before Chibs even had to answer.

"Yeah, but we sorta screwed them double time." Rat answered quickly. "And they're the least protected."

"M'not opening a pussy joint in Belfast, Rat." Chibs gave him a cocked glance, letting his face soften into teasing. "You're not takin' vacation. Some Irish women are too much work for too little love."

The younger man gave him a quick grinning of response, "I wouldn't know yet, Prez. How old's your daughter again?"

"Oh, shit." Tig's voice was a wondering whisper as Chibs let his shoulders jack back in into his chair in full on surprise of the boy's teasing, his brow arching as his face went blankly slack.

"Joking." Rat lifted his hands as his face paled a little. "I was just… shutting up."

"Aye." Chibs glared as he nodded a slowly placed agreement of leaded threatening toward the young man, the other men at the table stilled into quiet. "You remember that comment later, boy. Yeah? Because it's gonna come back around on you."

"Yeah." Rat rubbed against his mouth, catching along his beard as he slumped back in his chair. "Pretty sure you're not gonna let me forget it."

"Oh, no." Telford shook off slightly before stroking his fingers against the wood of the table, finally turning his glance toward Tig, fingers lifted lightly. "That one's yours to educate, Tiggy."

Trager gave him a quick grin, "Gladly."

* * *

><p>"Hey." He let his hand clap lightly into the larger man's lower back, leaning into Quinn's side as he matched their steps. "I want y'to scale it back."<p>

"I had a point, Chibs." Rane murmured tightly to the side. "He let Tig do his job for him. He's not - "

"You're not responsible for me, Quinn." He smirked into the defensive jutting of the other man's tone.

"Bullshit." The blonde shirked off as he kept walking toward the couch, letting his large frame round down onto it in frustration. "I was. I am. "

"Things change." Chibs murmured as stalled his steps, looking over the other man. "I can't shake up that table right now and y'know it. Be patient. None of us are whole right now."

"He's not right with you and Jarry." Quinn murmured. "Rat's not all that keen on it, either. You know that. I don't want it getting in his head when he should be doing his job."

"You've never been completely comfortable with Jarry yourself." Chibs spoke gently as he lifted his hands into quieted acceptance. "I know that too."

"Not because I care where you put your dick." The other man muttered as his jaw shied down, shoulders banking farther back into the cushions, "More like because I've watched you put it there. Seen more of that woman than I ever expected to, ya know? I don't dislike her. Just… I dunno. Forget it."

Telford couldn't help the smirk that twitched one corner of his mouth, "You gonna blush, Quinn?"

"No." the blonde jerked his jaw back up defensively, "She back?"

"You'd have a problem with it?" The Scot questioned with a tightening turn of his jaw.

"Not sayin' that."

Chibs shrugged slowly into it, "I've no fuckin' clue where Althea Jarry is when it comes to comin' back to me."

"Bullshit." Quinn gave him a sliding grin. "You remember we were all in that cemetery too?"

Chibs just gave him a broad smile of a near victory, catching against his shoulder as he passed by the edge of the couch, "So whatcha think my chances are?"

"She trusts me more than the others, Chibs." Quinn's voice had banked serious as the other man had stepped away behind him in humor, his head turned into the way he heard his President's boots stall on up on the floor. "Except probably Tigger. And she should."

"I know." Telford offered back on a counted quietness. "You right with that?"

"Yeah, I guess." Quinn nodded his head back onto the couch. "She's good for you."

"And I trust you with her more than the others." Chibs let off quietly as his steps continued toward the door. "Except probably Tigger."


	6. Chapter 6

She wasn't sure why exactly she'd expected Wendy at the door, but the very young and wide eyed innocent face that met her was a stilted surprise of its own. Ally blinked a confused glance into the way the girl was staring at her with the door only partly jarred open.

Those wide eyes narrowed in a spark of recognition, "What the hell do you want?"

She couldn't help flushing a surprisingly amused smirk at the girl, head cocked as she leaned her shoulders forward a little, "I need to speak to Chibs. I know he's here."

"I don't care what you know." The girl sharpened toward her, the door cracking open a bit further into her shaky but insistent show of attitude. "You're not - "

"Sweetheart, you really don't wanna do this." Ally shunted over her quietly, interrupting the girl's spitting tone with an intentional show of authority as her strong shunting palm banked the door wider. "He's expecting me."

She'd done a bike count out in front of the house. She knew exactly how many of them were there. And by the markings on the bike nearest the door she damn well knew he was one of them.

"Hey, it's okay." A faintly familiar voice interrupted them and Ally lifted her fingers gently from wood as the door widened farther open, Rat leaning into the newly opened space. "Sheriff."

"He's expecting me." Ally dropped the repetition into a casual tone, shaking her head toward him in a softened explanation meant to stall up any more attitude from the little brunette that was giving her a glaring.

"I know." He nodded as he searched over her briefly before his fingers tugged out against the younger woman's shirt. "Let her in, Brooke. C'mon. Cut the attitude. Seriously."

"She's the - "

"Seriously. Drop it." He shot tightly over her, tugging her aside as he nodded Ally into the house, cutting a darkened glance between the two of them. "He's in the kitchen."

Ally panned him a surprised look of shaded amusement before stepping into the house, following the sounds of voices and a tell-tale warmth of light. The surprise of comfort and a wavering near happiness surprised her as she edged into the kitchen doorway, stalled by the way even their amused voices were curtailed with a sort of weighty sadness. It was everywhere in the house, stalking from shadows and corners and skimming walls. Still, she leaned into the frame a moment, letting her glance trip over the way Case and Padilla and Trager were all clutched up warmly around a small table, the boys in laps and the smell of warm food teasing an insatiable innocence at her.

She lifted her glance past them, even as she caught the way both Tig and Nero looked briefly in her direction, her eyes catching Telford's browns across the room as he nursed a beer. He was leaned into the counter with a tired smile on his lips and his eyes went a little darker as he finally nodded in her direction. She watched the way he nodded toward the table with a cocky look of show, the hand with the beer waving toward them slowly. Ally intentionally gave him an arched glance before curling her fingers at him, aiming to draw him forward.

"Plenty of food, Sheriff." Nero was stretched back in his chair, his face paled even as he refused to look at her, his eyes blankly staring over the way Wendy had Thomas curled back against her chest.

"I'm fine, really. Thank you." She softened over them, a cagey smile on her lips as Tig's head tipped back along the chair, a smirk riding so tightly on his lips that she banked him a warning glance before turning back to Telford. "Got a minute?"

"Got a few." He answered slowly, settling the bottle to the table as he passed it, fingers catching softly sifting against the blonde of Abel's hair before angling toward her.

His hand pried into her jeans pocket as he passed her in the doorway, a sidelong and darkening glance laid over her as he intentionally pulled her into the hall and back farther into the house. A slight discomfort fit along her shoulders as he led her farther into the emptiness of the house, even as he caught Rat's attention and waved the other man closer as he stalled them on the way out of the living room.

"Yeah?"

"Y'stay with them." He warned low into the younger man, even as his fingers tugged tighter into the hem of her pocket, drawing her closer into his back in a show that brought the other man's eyes casting over their closeness. "No distractions, right?"

"Yeah." Rat shook off tightly, his glance meeting the older man's as he nodded a quick agreement. "Got it."

"Good boy." Chibs cuffed his other hand into the younger man's jaw with a gentled smile, giving him a nodding wink before pinching against his bearded chin. "Go get somethin' to eat now, huh?"

She couldn't help but study the suddenly wearied slacking of his face as his glance followed Rat back toward the kitchen, an affection still lighting in his eyes even in the shadowed up room. "He's terrified of you, Telford."

"A bit. I know." He nodded as he pressed his lips together slowly, letting his shoulders turn so that he could face her, fingers still teasing the edging of her pocket. "Boys are fine. Didn't I tell ya?"

"You did." She angled a slow agreement toward him, catching against his wrist as he teased his fingers up against the belt on her low slung jeans, stalling the closeness as she purposefully caught his glance. "But are they safe?"

He flicked her a suddenly defensive glance. "Nothin's touching those children, Althea."

"I can have my guys - "

"Y'will not." He drove into the front of her, fingers jerked hard into her belt as he laid a glaring down over her. "It's taken care of. They don't need t'see cops in their front yard right now."

"Okay." She agreed softly into the tensing of him along the front of her, exhaling slowly into the way he was studying her with parted lips and an intensely scrutinizing glance. "Okay, Filip."

He blinked a sort of breaking weakness into the breath she laid into his name, swallowing slowly as he let his eyes close into how near she was. "Let 'em eat. Wendy'll put them to bed and then she can sit down with ya. Sort the Children's Services stuff. Tig's got paperwork showing Jax and Tara wanted them to go to her. Documentation, yeah?"

"Legal?" she asked as she tipped her head into the stilted frustration in his tone.

"Some older paperwork Tara had. Left Wendy as their caretaker." He let his shoulder bank into the hall wall, eyes trapping over her face as he drew her into the movement with him, angling her hips to press into his even as her palm braced the wall beside him. "And he left a written statement."

"Good." Ally nodded a quick support into his obviously tired explanation. "That's good. I can pull anything that Tara may have had filed. It'll be okay, President."

"Y'forgive me yet, Lieutenant?" his voice had jaded a little, grinding into a low and farther sinking darkness that was a mixing of frustrated and taunting. "Or am I settin' house in Purgatory?"

"Pretty sure it was already your last known address, Scotty." She murmured on an arched glare, head tipping as she held a unswayed pride against the way his graveling accent wanted her leaning closer. "What happened with the Irish?"

He squinted a mild darkness over her that made the shadows tunnel around them. "I'm still not givin' up my business, love."

"Then you're still not getting any." She hushed forward, her jaw lifted into the way he'd aimed off the wall to meet her leaning.

His eyes were treading her features with a nearly amused softness, "Y'sure?"

"I can't keep doing this if you're not serious about cleaning up, Filip." Ally admitted into a weakened softness, her head shaking her glance from his to break from letting him see any more of the vulnerable honesty she couldn't seem to keep clutched in. "It'll kill me. Even if you don't. History, remember?"

"Y'think I could actually kill you?" he asked into a grating lowness.

"I don't know." She flicked back up in a new round of truth. "I really don't."

She couldn't necessarily read the emotions that rounded his features as he shook his head, letting his shoulders lean back into the wall on a hard exhalation.

"The Irish aren't pleased with what we've done." He explained softly in a sighed off breath, "Because it's forced them to find other avenues already. Get me?"

"I think." She nodded slowly.

"Triad's scattered too, yeah?" he hushed into the way he was pulling against her wrist, drawing her palm off the wall so that he could catch the other hand along her pelvis, dragging her tight up the front of him. "Brown's a brother. Black's changed hands in the best of possible ways. Brotherhood's quiet for the moment."

She let him lean her close because his voice was caging up unsound, a trembling to his accent that marked a flood of emotion, "Filip - "

"All it cost us was most of our family, Ally." He jerked her hips tightly into his, his darker eyes holding the focus of hers with a force of pained will. "And maybe I knew it was coming. Maybe I didn't. But y'chose to try and break me when I was already in fuckin' pieces. Maybe threatenin' you was the best of options a man like me knows. It got ya gone, didn't it?"

"Obviously not." She wiped a finger down the line of leather. "Because I'm standing right here, Scotty."

"But you weren't standin' anywhere near it when it all fell t'shit." He leaned his mouth closer to hers, a near groaning in his throat. "I swear to Christ, Althea, if you don't just fuckin' kiss me already - "

"What? You gonna kill me?" she asked cockily before dropping her mouth against the way he was turning his jaw up into her.

And she may have owned the movement by pressing her tongue into his mouth first but she sold her rights when she let him jerk onto her hips and turn her flush into the wall, his teeth knocking hers and lips bruising hers as he caught the back of her head up from hitting into the wall. And his fingers threading into her hair seemed to startle him suddenly still, the kiss broken-up-ended quickly as it had started, his eyes searching over her face with a glinting of confusion over his face.

"What?" she shook her head minutely, tongue wiping against her bottom lip as he stared at her with a shocked up look.

He shook his head slightly, glance dipping over her as his fingers flattened to spread out against her stomach, driving her farther flush into the wall. "Still Jackie's house. They're both still in it."

Ally nodded a sympathetic noise into the way she lifted her hand toward him, fingers curled suddenly as he shied his jaw away from her reaching, wiping his fingers off her before catching them back against her pocket and tugging into it. Even in drawing away from her he couldn't necessarily keep himself from catching closer. Chibs turned a slowed look over her, his shoulders slanting on a gentled settling.

"Y'should come get something to eat. Could be awhile. Abel's not goin' easy on her."

"Can't blame the kid." She softened over him. "Not hungry. But I'll take a beer."

He shot her a quickened grin, "Sure y'will, Lieutenant."

* * *

><p>"Where you goin'?" Chibs caught into Trager's movement, prying fingers around the lean upper arm that was brushing past him. "Huh? Stick around. I want you in on this thing with the boys."<p>

"I just gotta make a call." Tig shook off as he aimed his hand toward the door, catching the interested way the both of them were watching his sudden nerved cageyness. "Let Venus know I'm stickin' around."

"So call 'er." Chibs shrugged off as he tugged the older man tighter. "Y'don't need to step out on it. I've heard your version of sex talk. It's not all that impressive."

"Hey," Tig just gave him a brashed up but still cautious smirk before shrugging, giving Jarry a grin over the other man's shoulder before shying his jaw down, "I've stepped it up a little."

"You're s'posed to be over there?" Chibs asked quietly, lifting his jaw into the questioning.

"I was gonna pick her up." Tig leaned his jaw closer to his shoulder in a quieted admission, his blue eyes searching into the way Chibs was watching him. "It's all good. I'll just - "

"So go get her." The Scot shrugged blithely into it as he loosened them apart. "Just make it quick."

Tig watched his friend's movement, warily turning his glance between the way Chibs was already headed into the kitchen while Ally let her hands drag her pockets. "You stickin' around?"

She nodded slowly, a smile perking her lips as she obviously relished the teasing wink she gave him in a tint of cockiness, "Go get her, Trager."

"You're enjoying this." He pointed at her quickly as he tugged his gloves from his pocket, angling closer to her to meet her teasing. "You're sorta sadistic, Jarry."

"Maybe I just wanna see the softer side of Tig." She hushed over him before letting her steps lead her closer to the kitchen.

"Pretty sure Chibs'd have a big problem with that, Sheriff. He's pretty possessive of his pussy." He banked the comment low between them, letting his eyes dip the front of her on a taunted leering before grinning wider, hand caging his belt buckle, "Doesn't seem to have a problem makin' it clear it belongs to him now, either. Does he?"

The blasé and dismissive lift of her hand as she stepped fully away from him made him laugh as he turned for the door.

* * *

><p>"He didn't want those boys here, Chibs." Nero's tone was jacked up tight, his shoulders drawn up just as hard as the razoring he was laying into his voice. "Didn't want them anywhere near this mess. And you know that."<p>

"What I know?" Telford flicked back across the room, already jerking two bottles from the open fridge while the other hand ridged whitened along the top of it. "What I know is that I'm not leavin' his sons on a fuckin' farm with nobody watchin' them until I can be goddamn sure - "

"I'm watching them."

Nero's interruption scolded his spine straight and he flanked a glaring over the other man, using the toe of his boot to shunt the door closed as movement at the door caught his attention, his jaw flexed as he lifted the bottles off to the side and toward the way Ally was leaned in the doorway. He panned a guarding glance toward Padilla, flinching his eyes thinner in warning as he lifted the bottles higher in her direction, nodding into the way she took a tentative step forward to take them into her hands.

Ally curled them into her chest, the chilled glass breaking a coolness past the cotton of her shirt as she gave him a softened glance to stall his annoyance, "If you boys need to have a discussion - "

"There's no discussion." Chibs shot tightly between them, catching the furious glaring Nero banked into the comment as he shunted a darkened tone between the both of them. "The Teller boys stay in Charming until I'm damn sure it's safe for them to leave it. You're not takin' them, and you're not puttin' cops on them. This is the thing neither of you wanna test me on."

"You seem awfully damn uncomfortable flashing that patch around but you're putting it in my face right now?" Nero muttered tightly as he lifted his hands in disgust, aiming toward Telford. "You remember what it does to the men who wear it. I'm not in your club, mano, and neither is she."

The straightening of her spine as Nero flicked his hand in her direction drew Telford's side-cast attention long enough for him to shift tighter between the two of them, angling his hip cocked into the other man's accusation. He intentionally placed himself a proxy in her place, leaning his more formidable length and height into the line of Nero's accusations. The subtle shift of movement had her both proud and a little concerned at once, her eyes catching over him.

"My club is what's gonna keep the both of you breathin' in this happy little town." Chibs laid low and guttered.

"Or not? Depending on your mood, President?" Nero shunted between them as he picked up the shaded fury in the other man's tone, his eyes flicking toward Ally, "You think this place is safe for children, Sheriff? You think this is where they should be? So that they can grow up just like - "

"There is no discussion." Chibs interrupted tightly, the one long laid step he made drawing him full and even into Nero's space. "Twisting on her guilt isn't gonna change the fact that I will not allow you to take them. D'you understand that? Because I can make it all the clearer."

She let her eyes tip over the back of him, studying the way the cut fit the drawn up broadness of his shoulders, slimming into his ribs to allow the patch run of his tightened back. She avoided the damning glance of the Reaper after a moment, exhaling as she intentionally stepped up tighter into the lean of his taller frame.

"Chibs." She clipped both bottles into one hand, fingers curling the necks while the other hand crested just under the leather to press his back even as he tightened under the softened touch. "Relax."

"It's Wendy's choice." Nero cut between them quietly, his eyes casting to her and then back. "It's her decision."

"It will be, aye." Chibs murmured as he turned to pull one of the bottles from her, already leaning his steps away from the both of them as he popped the twist off. "If you keep your goddamn mouth shut long enough for it to work out."

"Filip." She hedged a softening tone after him, her hand catching along his elbow as he slacked her a still darkly lit glance. "Don't take this into that room. She doesn't deserve it."

He pinned her with a look still laden with unshaded anger and despite the urge to flinch she just cocked her head into the blackened up heaviness of it.

"I mean it." She murmured softly, keeping her head up into the way she twisted the cap off her own bottle.

"Maybe it was a mistake to keep you here, Althea." He quirked up at her before taking a swallow and turning back toward the doorway. "Y'seem to think you can tell me what to do."

"Somebody has to." She cast after him, shaking her head into slow annoyance as she passed the bottle toward the other man, cocking him a tightened glance. "And you couldn't hold that in for another night, Padilla? Well done."

Nero gave her a glare as he trapped the bottle up from her hand, voice bending into grated sarcasm. "Thank you, Sheriff."

She made a move to step from the room as well and was caught back by the way he tweaked his empty fingers into her shirt, his head tipping, "You really know what you're doing with that man?"

"Right now?" she shook her head slowly, "Nothing. He hasn't earned it back yet."

"You know what they are." Nero hushed into her. "How's that work out in your head?"

She flinched him a caustic glance, drawing away from the way he was still pulled into her, "Works out just fine, Padilla. Don't you worry about me."

Nero gave her a slowly softened shake of the head, his eyes shot up dark as he let his shoulders loosen low and sag as he leaned back into the kitchen counter, "Every one of them will break your heart."

Ally just gave him a jaded look, shaking her head into it, "I don't know why you seem to think that he hasn't done so already."

There was a bittersweetly saddened agreement casting over his features as she turned on him and left.


	7. Chapter 7

"We don't need an audience." She leaned long into his chest, letting her eyes find the sharpened jerk of his jaw into the way she'd laid her palm flat into his chest on a slowed warning.

"No." Chibs lifted his fingers between them, bottle still hooked into them even as he aimed one to point into her, avoiding the urge to smile into the warmth of her remembered closeness "Tig and I are sittin' in on this, Ally."

"We don't need a village to discuss these children, Filip. Especially considering you can't seem to hold your temper when it comes to - "

"We're sittin' in on it." He tipped the argument into her, using his larger chest to sway into her pressing. "Or it doesn't happen. Wendy doesn't know you."

"She has a point, though." Wendy's voice shafted between them as she entered the living room, one of the baby's blankets still fisted in her hand as she shrugged. "You can clear out the entourage any time. The quieter this house is, the better they'll sleep. And you know I can handle this shit, Chibs."

He flicked a cocked glance between the two of them, eyes thinning up a little into the way they'd otherwise quietly banded together in some sort of feminine solidarity, "All right. I want Tiggy around, though."

Wendy nodded softly, an obvious exhaustion wearing on her features, "Good. He makes Abel laugh."

Ally watched the quick jut of questioning angle his jaw before he nodded a softened acquiescence, his glance broaching hers a moment as he leaned closer. She couldn't help turning a half smile into the way he studied her, biting down on her lip as he let the bottle drop to his side and his chest sway forward in a silent pleading. The lift of her jaw met into the way he broached a slowly testing kiss into her, leaning into the peaceful warmth she accepted it with. He squinted a questioning over her as he pulled away from her, bottle hooked back up in her direction.

"That was too easy, Lieutenant."

"Well," She shrugged slowly into his taunting, amusedly watching him step backwards toward the door, "It's been a long damn day, Telford."

The smile she gave in to was damn near unavoidable as he left the room, her hand wiping along her ribs as she turned into the broaching way Wendy was watching her. There was a distinctly knowing look on the other woman's face and she just shrugged helplessly into it before moving toward the couch and settled into it with a long exhalation. The blonde just dropped a shake of the head over her before leaning into the chair, letting her elbows ride into the denim on her knees as she tossed the blanket onto the coffee table, one of her hands wiping against her face tiredly.

"It's weird to have him defending me." Wendy murmured into a vacantly staring confusion, shrugging it up between them as she reached for the pack of cigarettes that was on the table. "He adored Tara. Treated her like a damn princess. All of them did at one point or another. Even when shit started falling apart."

"She's a big ghost around here, huh?" Ally evened their stance, banking forward into the way Wendy lit the cigarette on a tight inhalation.

"Gem's gonna be an even bigger one." The other woman still hadn't looked up from the way her eyes were unfocused and staring blankly into vacant space. "Such sick shit. How am I supposed to explain this world to those boys?"

"You don't." Ally murmured softly as she waved off the cigarette Wendy offered her, keeping her tone evened and warm. "You hold out as long as possible. Let these guys settle the aftershocks while you worry about formula and a balanced breakfast and school supplies."

"With what cash?" Wendy snorted as she shook her head, "My excessive paycheck?"

"You really think he's going to let those boys go without? He's got so much guilt on his shoulders he's gonna spoil the hell out of them." Jarry snorted back as she let her shoulders bank back into the couch cushion, toeing off her boots and drawing her legs up into a comfortable curling. "They have beds and food and people who love them, Wendy. Right now? That's all they need."

"They don't have their father." The other woman gave her a slapped look of frustration, the cigarette burning forgotten between pinched fingers. "And I don't know why."

"I don't either." Ally murmured into a softened admittance. "But they have you. And he's doing what he can to make sure it stays that way."

The blonde gave her a slowly scrutinizing look, "That's why you're the one handling this? Because he's pulling some sort of strings?"

"He doesn't have any to pull. It's me because I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be with you." Ally offered into an honest stretch of softness, leaning into the arm of the couch casually to keep the other woman's sudden tension evened out. "And having me on your side is going to help not hinder. So just relax, huh?"

"I don't get you two." Wendy whispered as she finally shook her head, sucking down a long breath of smoke before exhaling hard, "I mean, not much of this makes sense, but the two of you going back and forth? That's fucked up, Sheriff."

Ally cocked an arched glance over her, "I realize that."

"How's it supposed to work when he does what he does and you do what you do?"

"You let me worry about that." She leaned a direct tone forward, her elbow riding the arm of the couch as she nodded into the words. "You have bigger and better problems."

"Yeah," Wendy shunted off on a dryly cutting laugh. "Thank you for reminding me."

* * *

><p>He kept his quiet for most of it, keeping himself apart from her on the couch so that he could watch her lean forward over the paperwork that Tig had spread before the both of them. His eyes graced over the forward curving of her shoulders and the wild looseness of waved dark hair. Even the curves of it holding his glance against the way he tried to turn away from just watching her for as long as he could. And he avoided leaning any closer or stretching a touching toward her, sipping on the dregs of another bottle while Tig leaned against his shoulder from his perch on the opposite arm of the couch.<p>

The other man's warm presence at his side was a guarding comfort that he held close and stretched even farther into as the two women spoke, the both of their voices quieted but confident in their control. Chibs turned his head away from watching the long stretch of her spine as she explained something to the younger woman, blocking out the curving heat of her voice as he turned his jaw up into his brother's blue eyed searching.

"Thought y'were picking up Venus?" he asked softly, keeping his tone low to not disturb them.

"I did." Tig hushed back as he dipped his shoulders down. "She's in the kitchen. It's all good."

Chibs gave him a perplexed glance. "Y'didn't have to lock her in another room, Tigger. Not like I can say much with Lady Law sittin' next to me."

"S'okay." Trager shrugged into it quietly, his face slacking a little paler as he searched over his friend's face in interest. "Don't want her uncomfortable either, ya know? She's reading."

"She's reading?" Chibs murmured into a smirk.

"Yeah, like a book. With words and shit." Tig shunted his shoulder down into the other man's, jamming against Telford's arm in response to the teasing. "Don't start."

"Ya know I'm tryin' to get right with that, right?" Chibs murmured softly. "I'm tryin'."

Tig shied him a glance that mingled between appreciation and still an obvious twang of latent hurt. "Yeah."

"She's a good girl." Chibs murmured on a sincere nod. "I mean - "

"I know what you mean." Tig whispered in response, lifting his jaw as his shoulders turned back up, spine straightening in a tensed assertion. "And she is."

* * *

><p>"It's been all too easy, my love." His whisper was laid sidelong against the back of the couch, his jaw wiping on it as his shoulders relaxed and head banked back loosely, Wendy's exit from the room leaving it suddenly hushed empty. "You're pullin' your punches tonight."<p>

"You look tired." She admitted softly on a shrug, keeping her socked feet curled up under her, boots dumped forgotten to the floor so that she could lean turned into the way he was looking at her.

Ally lifted her hand into the stretch of his throat, letting her fingers stroke against it as he swallowed into the touch, her fingers curling upward so that she could lean his head fully to the side. He angled his jaw tighter into the fabric of the couch even as his body stayed turned forward, a certain sway of exhaustion keeping his arms pinned under a sightless weight, palms loose against the couch as his glance searched over her face. She gave him a slow smile as she let her thumb ride his cheek, pressing into the slackened paleness that was near graying his skin.

"I am tired." He admitted softly, accent thickening up as he angled his jaw into the wipe of her fingers, his eyes clipping shut as he leaned slightly farther into the touch. "Seems not sleepin' has that effect on me."

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Her knowing whisper followed the wipe of her fingers against a sliding of one of his scars, her attention on the movement and not the way he was staring at her.

"Y'really just ask me that?" he cocked her a sudden dry glance before shaking his head, letting his shoulders shift into a sudden and silent concession to her touching.

Ally smiled sadly into the sway of his shoulders, letting her other hand thread into her hair as she kept her head up, letting him stretch his upper body into a leaning that had his head angling into her collarbone. She let her jaw tip to the side, breathing out a slow exhalation as he laid the smell of smoke and leather and familiar aftershave into her throat, the weight of his upper body stretching heavy on her ribcage. The persistent press of him was so familiar a lush rememory that she curled her palm up along the side of his face on an inevitably sweeping touch, drowning her head down into the way he suddenly groaned agreement and jerked his palm along her forearm, digging them closer.

"Just stay here." The grated ruggedness of his whisper was so rich in demanding that she wanted to balk against it, just out of sheer pride.

But there was a begging buried in the way his fingers dug curling around her wrist.

And she couldn't bring herself to sway against the feeling of him pulling her closer rather than pushing her away.

"It's still Jax's house." She murmured into the way his fingers overtook hers and wrapped her palm closed inside his larger one.

"Jackson's dead." The words were stunted and battered broken into her clavicle, the accented stretch of them muddied by betrayal and something heart stricken. "Just stay, Althea."

She didn't answer besides stretching her hips lower into the couch, the hand she'd had stretched into her hair leaning down to brace along his neck as she tucked him farther down into her chest. The leaning of him curled his head farther away from meeting her eyes but tighter into him lacing up around her ribs, forehead driving into her sternum as she rubbed soothing tip toe touches along the grazing of his hairline.

* * *

><p>She smiled sleepily into the way Venus cocked a bemused glance over the both of them, shoulder braced into the doorway at a graceful angling. Ally just gave up as much of a wordless shrug as she could with the limited range of movement she had, feeling a flush touch along her cheeks.<p>

"With great power comes great exhaustion?" Venus hushed the words softly into the room, the drop of her darker hair shifting her shoulders as she lifted her jaw into the assertion, eyes raking the way Telford was stretching the both of them into the arm of the couch.

"And an even greater stubbornness." She let up softly, her palm still turned clutching along the back of his neck even though he'd wedged her farther beneath him and stretched longer along the couch in sleep. "Tig doesn't need to stay. Sheriff on duty."

Venus merely let up a shrug, her movements suddenly very assured but still calmly graceful as she stretched steps into the room. She drew a blanket from the back of the chair and cocked Ally a semi amused glance as her large hands shifted it open, head cocked into the way she flicked it out over the stretched length of them on the couch. A certain understanding had crossed her features, a tripping quality of slivered sadness laying her lipstick tinted lips.

"They're the men of nightmares, angel." Venus whispered even as she wiped her fingers tracing against the shoulder line of Telford's cut, her words drawing Ally's head up into a sudden guarded and defensive searching. "And nightmares wake up desperate."

"I know." She whispered a sullen and sickened agreement into the other woman's words, their eyes meeting fleetingly before Venus drew her palm up under her considerable breasts. "Take Tig home, huh? They both need more sleep than they're getting."

"And when do you sleep, Sheriff?"

"Ally." She lifted her head into the correction, wiping an invisible line back and forth against the chilled sweat that was slicking his neck. "It's just Ally."

"Not Althea?" Venus gave her a quickened smile as her accent swung even quieter, letting her glance graze over the tangled line they made once again. "Just Ally? But Althea is a much more formidable name. Greek mothers killing their sons. "

Ally perked a confused interest after the other woman, her brow arched into a suddenly intent scrutiny as her fingers curled into the back of his neck, measuring the still even rhythm of his sleep heavy breathing. "Excuse me?"

Venus just gave her a slowly smiling shrug, "Just fairy tales and mythology."

"You're pretty formidable yourself, Venus." Ally gave her a swift lift of her jaw even as her shoulders leaned more comfortably into the couch, her hips shifting farther flush to his as she tucked him tight. "Speaking of mythology."

"I know." Venus gave her a flushed grin, leaning her shoulders forward into the excitedly whispered response. "It's too on the nose but I just could not help myself."

Ally snorted a laugh into the way the other woman jaunted a quick wave in her direction before heading for the doorway, a single charming smile glanced back before she moved away, "I do believe I'd like to call you Althea anyhow. If that'd be all right?"

"I think that'd be fine."


	8. Chapter 8

He assumed he'd been missing from the waking world for the leaving, but he'd certainly heard Tig's bike break from the drive, the inches of his too flushed up warm skin intrinsically recognizing the low growl that accompanied an attempt at a soft exit. And at first, because he'd been too lazily comfortable with his face buried along the measured breathing rhythm of her sternum, he hadn't moved to argue the loss of his brother's companionship. But a threading worry for the vacancy of protection, of something loyally unquestionable, it finally forced a shifting into sweated heat.

"I told him it was fine." The whisper of her was suddenly too damn close to disentangle from, and the very nearness of this recently unfamiliar softness she was giving him… it strafed on his nerves.

"You told him it was fine?" he scruffed his hand over his face as he shifted up and away from the sweet scented heat of her center. "And since when should you be tellin' him anything?"

"Since you told me to stay, President." The quickly biting retort she gave him was all too haughty and tripping up his ability to argue her logic with sleep muddled thoughts and the swampy flush on his skin. "Don't start your shit, Telford. I can leave too if you'd like."

He lifted his head into the forced stretching of his shoulders, shrugging a blanketed layer of fabric off him as he swallowed against the trickling sweat on the back of his neck. He wasn't sure if it was laying there because of too much warmth, or the lack of the chill she'd been keeping cold between them since he'd run his mouth on into tearing them apart. Chibs wiped his hand along his face, searching over his palm to study the sweat that was slacking off him.

"Christ, I can't fuckin' breathe with you this close." He couldn't cut the words from his thoughts without them lathing off his tongue and he instantly regretted the sharpness of them as he turned dark eyes into her watching.

The control she had in lifting her jaw into his unfettered accusation was far stronger than he expected, a certain understanding shading the hazeled brown of her eyes as she just blinked and wiped her hair off her face. She was rarely this clearly and quietly controlled. It made him near miss the nervy and manic twinges she usually slapped in his direction. But it also soothed on him a little, found him a foot hold in his confused waking.

Ally exhaled softly, her shoulders still as she tipped her head, "But you can't sleep without me. Can you, Filip?"

"Don't get too proud, darlin'." He blinked annoyance into the argument. "A bottle of Jack and bit of smoke'd give me the same brand of sleep you do. Shifty and loose."

"Bullshit." She was near on smugly smiling into the contrary bite of her words. "You were completely unconscious."

"Why's it so damn hot in here?" he thrummed the change of subject into the way he wiped his hands against his face again, shaking his head into a frustration that leveled and lingered from the way she was watching him with such a sure knowing on her.

He didn't quite know what it was she was suddenly so quietly clear on.

But the glittered gilding of her eyes as she watched him shift uncomfortably, it was damn annoying.

"Take off the leather." She shrugged as she curled farther back onto the couch, the stretching of her toned up muscles drawing his attention to the length of her.

He tried to fight smiling into the realization that she didn't plan on moving an inch from the spot she'd claimed but it was damn near impossible as he searched over the relaxed stretch of her. She was long and lithe and every toned inch of skin over muscle was something he was prizing as his own, even if it was just in a silent watching. She'd been taunting on him to take off the cut, teasing the possibility of just being two people rather than law and lawless. And the warring of wanting and pride in his chest made his lungs clampen down even tighter.

She made it impossible to breathe properly sometimes.

She made it impossible to survive daylight's hours without matching his sleep rhythm to the rise and fall of her measured lungs.

He hated her most completely for that bewitching trick.

Maybe near on much as he adored her just smiling victorious into the way he shifted his shoulders forward to draw the Reaper off his back.

"What are you going to do if she still tries to take those boys away, huh?" she asked into the warmed stretch of her fingers against leather, leading the pulling of it from his tautened back. "Threaten her?"

"Beg." He countered sullenly into the half lit room. "Bribe."

"Steal?" Ally murmured as he shunted the leather flat to the coffee table.

"I can't keep losin' sons, Althea."

The duality of the term wasn't lost on her and she could see the self loathed disgust that filmed his face along with overheated sweat. The words stayed still hanging in the dank air between them as she considered, once again, how high the blood count he'd endured had been. It had started long before she arrived and she had no doubt that this moment they were in was just another long range rippled result of the haggard road he'd been blindly navigating.

"Give her a reason to stay, Filip. Give her security. A reason to keep those boys close rather than taking them away from here." She whispered it into the way her fingers were curling the forward bend of his shoulder, pulling him slowly back into the way she was stretched behind him. "Give me a reason, Scotty."

"I'm tryin'." He shunted the words into the way he forcibly stilled her pulling, head sharpening a turn as he looked over her. "Christ, Althea. I can't do it in a fuckin' day. I'm spent up. And I've years of shit to fix. He left me this mess."

"He didn't." Even she seemed surprised in her quiet defense of Teller. "He left you with clean hands and a new start. Not even Patterson is going to lay any of the shit he pulled on you. She's back to watching and waiting. I'm back to watching and waiting."

"And what are you waitin' for?" the gritting of his voice drew his jaw a fraction closer into leaning along the stretch of her. "Huh, Lieutenant? We're still the same people. Same game."

"No, it's not." She ignored the darkness of his tone, intentionally keeping hers soft and airy and quieted in the otherwise silent room, her fingers prying under the double holster that was strapped along his shoulders. "The King makes his own rules, Filip. Maybe I'm just waiting to see what kind of king you'll make."

"Then y'shouldn't be undressin' me quite so easily." He shifted uncomfortably into drawing off the holster, laying the double sheathed blades on top of the cut before slowly leaning back into her outstretched legs. "And y'shouldn't expect so much."

"I expect you to be you." She was suddenly curling up along his back and shoulder, her lips drawing along his ear in a way that made his gut drop and his thighs tighten up even as his hand caught against her shifting. "Rude, cocky, calculating, patient and impatient at once."

"List is gettin' long, love." He felt the smile twitch his lips as she let her tongue lash against the skin below his ear.

"Smarter than you like people to think you are." She kissed the dampened spot she left there, rubbing her lips down his neck into the collar of his shirt. "Reactionary. Possessive. Angry. Violent. Forceful."

He guttered a groan into her hair along his cheek as she brought the flat of her palm against his chest and pressed him still.

"Loyal and sweet. Mischievous. Warm."

"You endin' this eulogy soon?" he turned a smile suddenly into her nearness. "M'not dead yet, darlin'."

"The King is dead." Ally just tipped him a daring glance, her eyes dropping to his mouth before lifting back to meet the velveted brown he was watching her with. "Long live the King."

He flicked her a suddenly wary glance, eyes thinning dangerously dark under her intimation as he exhaled hard and jerked his jaw, "Can't seem t'sleep right without you, Althea."

"I know." She nodded as she leaned back, her hand curled up under his jaw to draw him into the movement with her. "So sleep."

"You want more than sleeping." He gave in to the shifting of movement, banking his head into the way she curled him up, locking her arm under his so that she could cage his chest with a guarding arm. "You're usin' that tone."

The argumentative noise she made in her throat leaned into the back of his head and stalled his argument. "I just want you, Scotty. Pretty sure that's how we started this mess."

He grinned into his eyes sloping shut. "You been gunnin' for me from the start, Lieutenant."

"I have a very particular set of weaknesses." She whispered into the way he was stretched along the front of her, "And you seem to pull on every damn one of them."

He shrugged lazily deeper into the wrapping of her around him, "It's a talent."

* * *

><p>He was still in shirt sleeves as he leaned into the open door space of her car, his forearm riding against the roof while he watched her settle into the seat, her hand already tugging her seat belt across her body. Chibs turned a glance over the way she was watching him with a semi amused openness, her face blank but for a sort of endearing softness that he relished for a few moments.<p>

"Quinn wants to know if you're back." He let his forehead round against his arm, letting his back stretch off the uncomfortable ache the couch had left on his middle aged spine. "Gettin' jumpy about where everybody fits. It's trippin' him up."

She just blinked him a surprised glance of half amusement, letting her hand stretch into his shirt to pull against it lightly, "Tripping him up or you, President?"

"I'd like t'know myself, Lieutenant." He hushed over her, letting his chest press into the way she was reaching, head still pressed into his arm. "Where we goin' from here?"

"Well," she fingered the button of his shirt, her voice softening up toward a quieted and sorrowed sympathy. "I'm going to work on very little sleep and you're burying your family. I think that's more than enough for one long day."

She hadn't meant to make him ache so hard across his eyes, but she surely had a true point. And it had needed to be made. He still had a multitude of steps to take that she obviously wasn't a welcomed part of and that grazed on her a little. But she had to let him make the movements.

"Ally - "

"You know where I am, Filip." She nodded a whisper into the way she pulled him into her space in the car. "You've never had a problem finding me before."

"I'm not askin' where you are." He grated over her in obvious frustration. "I'm askin' where we are."

"Where we've always been." She nodded as she lifted her mouth into his, letting her tongue swipe along his bottom lip as he stilled himself against her pulling. "Balancing between."

He shunted a frustrated exhalation into her rubbing lips, letting her palm flatten spread against his chest so that her fingertips were brushing his throat. "Althea."

"You wanna know where we're at?" The words were pressed into his lips and he groaned a tighter tipping into them, kissing her slowly and softly before blinking at her as he pulled away, letting his head lift in a silent watching. "Come home tonight."

The flinched look he gave her at the term bred a mingling of emotions into his eyes, something tripping his shoulders tight as he cocked his head over hers and questioned the authority she'd shunted into the assertion. Chibs drew his jaw up slightly, carefully keeping from hitting the ridging of the car as he raised his shoulders a fraction while driving his teeth on a scraping of his bottom lip.

"Never said you were home, darlin'." He taunted into her, the remainder of his pride catching into his shoulders as he cast a shaded glance over the angle of her lifted jaw.

"Mmm. Exactly." She murmured as she lifted a hand into the ignition, jacking the car started with a quick turn of her wrist. "You let them watch those boys and come get some real sleep. And then you tell me where we're at, President."

"Y'really know what you're askin' for, Althea?" he caught against her wrist and rubbed the turn of thinner skin, leaning away as her fingers released from his shirt.

Her wrist turned against the break of his thumb, forcing him to release in a quick shunt of movement before she reached past him for the door handle, "Do you, Filip?"

A grin of wild challenge caught up over his lips as he stepped away from the car, palms lifted defensively as he winked into the way she slammed the door shut.

The tipped smirk she answered with through the glass before jutting the car into reverse had him letting his lungs release as his hands stuffed into his pockets. "Crazy fuckin' minx."

* * *

><p>He took the fussing boy into the center of his chest, smiling sympathetically into the frustration that aged Wendy's wide angled features as she shook her head against the boy's hiccupped whines. Chibs gave her a quick wink before nodding silently into the way Abel was clinging the flat of her palm against the back of her bare calf, his head half leaned into the hem of the silken robe she'd drawn over her.<p>

"Go on." He nodded toward the kitchen, carrying his voice over Thomas' keening as he started a hushing over the boy. "Trade off."

"Nero go to Gemma's last night?" she asked before leaning down into the way Abel had clutched even closer to her, drawing the boy up into her chest though he didn't necessarily need to be carried.

Chibs shook his head tightly on a silently blanked shrug, banking his shoulder into her direction as he lifted Thomas higher onto his shoulder, bouncing the boy slightly into a soft rhythm of shushing. It didn't necessarily work at first, but the volume of the boy's cries tampened down a bit as he dug sharp baby nails along the Scot's jaw, pushing and pulling at once. He could feel she hadn't moved, could tell she was still wearing a worried glance over the back of him.

"You two… you want the same thing, ya know?" she offered into his back. "Big picture wise."

"I want the boys close. He wants them far." Chibs grated off into the center of the living room. "Sounds more like an opposite than a same, darlin'."

"You both want them safe and loved." She sharpened back. "It's the same. Jax wanted - "

"Jackie wanted them out of the life." He turned back, carefully leveling his anger into a quieted and civil murmur, lifting his jaw away from Thomas' unintentional clawing. "I'm takin' the life away from them. And if I can do it, I see no need to take 'em anywhere, except maybe a bigger house. Happen t'know their grandmother's is available."

"If you can do it." She repeated his earlier words on a jaded sharpness, the long slender stretch of her palm sloped up against Abel's head as the boy tugged tighter into her. "If?"

"Give me a chance, Wendy." He didn't mind that there was a begging threading the shushing tone, the flat of his cheek pressed into soft blonde. "They're all I've left of him too, ya know?"

The surprised wideness of her eyes softened the way she had tightened her features and he watched her exhale on an intentional slowness, her head tipping into the way Abel was tucked into her front. "Jarry stay the night?"

He flinched his head aside, turning his steps toward the couch as he feathered kisses along Thomas' temple. "Nothin' happened. I slept. She left."

"I just asked. I didn't mean anything by it." She murmured a searching over him, tipping her steps toward the kitchen slowly, "Come get some coffee before you go."

* * *

><p>He was doing an awful lot of dealing with an awful lot of women these days. Not that any of them were too much to complain about. But none of them were the mother that he was used to searching out for quiet moments of comfort. And he was feeling a little like he had more too-pretty-too-loud-sisters than brothers left. And it left him suddenly disjointed and awkward as he shifted slow steps toward the office door at Red Woody.<p>

"She's not s'pposed to be disturbed." The snap of gum accentuated the girl's voice at his back and he tipped his head and shoulders into turning, letting the flat of his palm broach the wall as he looked over the finely made curvature of her.

"She won't mind, trust me." Chibs nodded, glancing over the full breasted bounty of a girl who could've probably nearly been his daughter, and feeling something in his stomach drop cold when he realized that the glancing wasn't necessarily as enjoyable as it had been maybe months before.

It wasn't what he was wanting or needing.

He was looking for softer and more on loving than lust.

And even had he been searching out something with a little heat to it, his brain hitched miles back to the sure strong rise and fall of a chest he'd let himself safely sleep on.

"Uhkay." The girl gave him a shrugging but he was stunted still by the surprising realization that he didn't even plan on watching her ass as she moved on by him. "Whatever."

"You need something?" Lyla's voice was a sweetly twisting smoke that turned his head back around as he dumped his shoulders into the wall beside her office door. "Chibs?"

"A bottle." He grunted as he let his jaw turn sidelong into the concerned wideness of her almost innocent eyes. "More sleep."

"Don't we all?" she shrugged thin shoulders at him as she leaned into the edge of her door, cocking him a concerned glance. "Heard your voice. You're sorta hard to miss."

"Luckily, so far, most everyone has missed." He graced his hand against his chest and down, clipping her a quick albeit falsified grin. "Just checking in, darlin'. Asked Chucky to keep you up to date. Funerals and things."

"He has been." She nodded tightly, casting a quick glance out into the center of the studio, a long exhalation shifting her against the doorframe. "He's a very strange little man, Chibs."

"I know." The grin he gave her was finally turning true. "But the loyal sort. Be kind, huh? He's missin' Gem."

"I know. So are you." She matched his words in a softer whispering of the words. "He didn't mention Juice."

He flinched her a tightened up glance, letting his head rub back against the wall as he blew out a breath, "Tiggy and I are takin' care of it."

Lyla squinted into it quietly, knowingly, "You'll let me know where? I told the kids we could take some flowers over, say goodbye. He was the only one of you who could keep up with their video games. Even Ope sucked at them."

"I will." He whispered into the way she was leaning her head into the doorframe sadly, her lips pressing to keep from saying much else. "Promise. Take you myself if y'like."

"That'd be good." She nodded into a slow exhale. "I need you guys to sit down with me about accounts. Red Woody and Diosa. I don't like dealing with Alvarez's crew by myself, Chibs. Marcus is sorta sweet but Oso makes me… I dunno, he's just creepy."

A wincing went rounding under the darkness of his eyes. "Sorry I missed that one, sweetheart. I'll make sure someone's with you."

"I can't keep doing both." Lyla's voice was a slowly softened apology. "I know you've got a lot on you right now, but… I got three kids, Chibs. And this place could use more attention than it's getting already. We could make this big time, but not if I'm bouncing between two places and trying to get home after school. Winsome tries but… damn. She's… not business savvy."

"I know." He nodded as he turned his palm up against her jaw, laying his lips into the way she dipped her forehead forward in acceptance of a chaste kiss. "I'll find a way. Maybe you talk to Brooke about the kids too, yeah? She's been helping Wendy. I'd trust her to take care of them. More so than these girls."

"Okay." The softness of her platonic concern was full in still wide eyes as she squeezed her long fingers against the hemmed edge of his cut. "Who's taking care of you, President?"

"Tiggy." He grinned sidelong into the response. "Been nine miles up my ass for days now. So t'speak."

"Not what I hear." She whispered toward a teasing, her smile perking the corners of her pretty lips.

"Yeah?" he cocked a slightly amused smirking over her. "And what d'you hear, Madam Producer?"

"That you're pretty much off limits." She teased as she straightened in the doorway, letting her arms cross her chest in a playful accusation. "Rat told the girls at Diosa you've got yourself a lady. Told them not to expect you around much anymore."

"Boy's got a mouth bigger than his brain and a dick that needs a warning sign." He shunted off as he shook his head.

"Goddamn it, it's true. Isn't it?" She clipped her heel into the carpeting of her office, leaning her palm back into the doorframe as she smirked her shoulders forward. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because it's not simple." His focus lazed out into the open studio. "It's far from fuckin' simple, Lyla."

There was a smile curling into the sweetened hush of her voice as she leaned closer to his shoulder and nudged her knuckles against his hip, "Most good women are, Chibs."

"I wouldn't say she's all good." He snorted as he shook his head back and forth, exhaling through his nose as he avoided matching her too wise eyes. "She's a grenade missin' its pin. I let go and she takes the wide world to its goddamn knees."

"I've never heard you talk like that." Lyla whispered into a slow angling of her head, her fingers pressing into his leather. "Ever."

"Been a long time since I've heard me talk like that." He shook it off tightly, pressing away from the wall before catching her hand, drawing another smile up over his lips as he pulled her into a slow hug. "We'll sort everything, yeah? And you call me for anything, okay? I mean it."

"Okay." He felt her nod the agreement into his shoulder, her arms cinching tightly into him in a drawing hug that he figured she needed just as much as he probably did.


	9. Chapter 9

On the outside edges of his consciousness, he knew what an awkward pair of maudlin men they made. Any manner of machismo that leather and weaponry and aged experience may have lent them was washed blank by the way they were pressed leaning together on the grass, the Scot flat to the ground with his arms resting his knees while Trager crouched his weight into the other man's side. Their boots and momentum completely stilled up by the unsure sorrow that cradled between their pressing, keeping them paired into their even grieving.

"Damn stupid boy." There was a ranged reality of sadness in Chibs' voice as he flicked a flame off his Zippo, speaking after a sharp inhalation on the cigarette. "He just never could let things be still. Couldn't just tread water and wait."

"You gave him chances, Chibby. You tried." Tig murmured over the unmarked disturbance of dirt that broke into a stretch of lush grass, his hand dropping to accept the lighter the other man offered. "Juice was twisted up. You did what you could."

"Turned on 'im." There was a twisted wiring of guilt in the other man's quieted words as he turned his jaw aside. "And I walked away."

"You didn't. Not entirely." Tig argued quietly before lighting his own cigarette, dropping the lighter back into the other man's hand, clenching their palms together with a quick squeeze that drew Telford's attention back forward. "You gave him more chances than anybody else in this club, Chibs. You brought that boy back more than once."

"No bringin' him back from here, brother." There was a shivering in the President's hand as he pieced the cigarette into his lips, hands slacking back against his knees as he angled his head into Trager's leaned pressing. "I gave him his patch back. Let him have his home."

"I know you did." Tig murmured softly. "I got no argument there, Chibs."

"We can't keep losing, Tiggy." Telford's head lifted into the sun, letting his skull break back resting on his shoulders as his friend turned a glance over him, noting the dampness of tears that watered darker eyes. "Old road's comin' up short."

Trager lifted a guarding hand into the back of the other man's head, dropping a chaste kiss into Chibs' temple unthinkingly before letting his arm rest onto loosely sagged shoulders, "Don't plan to. We've got this."

The flinching shut of the Scot's eyes echoed the emptiness he felt in his gut, keeping them angled tightly together awhile longer in as comfortable a silence as they were going to find.

* * *

><p>"You just gonna let that shit go?" Tig's voice caught along his shoulder from behind and Chibs just jacked a shrugging into the question, lifting the whiskey bottle he'd kept caged in his hand to pour another round.<p>

"They're workin' it out." Telford dropped his glance wincingly from the solid and upward arcing fist Quinn threw into Happy's gut, jacking the man back on his heels as he coughed up a feral grin. "Slowly."

Tig slanted his hips sideways, straddling the bench of the picnic table outside of the half remade clubhouse, his palm catching into the way Telford slid the glass his way but kept the bottle. Trager snorted into the sudden roar of frustrated rage Happy let off as he went after the larger man, shaking his head as he turned his glance over his President's profile.

"We gotta talk about this place."

"I'm not going after Wendy about TM yet." Chibs flicked tightly down over the lip of the bottle before taking a long swallow, his jaw biting into the hissing he made. "Settle her with the boys first. We'll make an offer after. Give her what she wants before askin' for what we want."

"We're a little light on funding when it comes to buyin' out a garage, Chibby."

"We're fine on funding." Chibs shunted back at him, slanting his jaw sideways but not drawing his eyes from the way the other two men were still ranging about in the ring that had been shifted back into its original home. "At least for the moment."

"Recent expenses are gonna - "

"Juice left his assets to the club." Telford's voice swung low and quiet. "We don't just deal pussy and porn. Now we're into medicinal smoke."

"Hey," Tig tipped his head as he lifted his full glass in a mock of a toast. "Your girlfriend's gonna love that."

"My girlfriend smokes more weed than you do, Tiggy." Chibs hissed off another round of whiskey before lifting his jaw and slacking his head into a surprised turn, "Christ, fuckin' girlfriend? How? No."

Trager just gave him a wide grin before taking down the quick shot he'd been given, blowing off the strength of it before turning his head into the sharp grunting noise Quinn had leveled off. "All right, boys. Dance is over."

Chibs lifted his head into the concerned tone the other man was using, adding a sharpened whistle into the reprimand as he noted the blood pouring from Happy's nose. He squinted darkly into the way the two men shoved off each other in annoyance, Hap's lankier frame dumping off the mat on a stunted movement as he intentionally stalked away angrily. Quinn was leaned against the ropes, his breathing riding his broad shoulders up and down as he wiped against a bruised jaw.

"What'd I tell you?" the bottle was hooked up in Telford's fingers as he aimed a pointing toward the larger man. "You got a problem, swallow it."

"He needs to sort his shit, Prez." Rane spit off a stringy spray of blood before wiping against his lips on a shrug. "Or pack it up."

"Hey." Chibs lifted his jaw into the roughened up grating of the other man's tone. "I mean it, Quinn. You lay off 'im."

Quinn's jaw twitched as he wiped blood off his lip again, staring at it a moment as he stretched his broad shoulders on a slow stretch. "Yeah, I get it."

"Go get cleaned up." Chibs waved him off on a wearied shake of the head, lifting the bottle toward Trager's glass and cocking the other man a derogatory look. "Damn children, those two."

Trager's jaw lifted into questioning, the blue in his eyes tweaking toward crystalline as he palmed the once again full glass. "He's been ridin' Hap like it's Spring Break in Bitchtown."

The other man shifted his elbows onto the table, stretching forward to roll his shoulders into a dip of his jaw, letting his fingers twirl the half empty bottle slowly around on the dinged up table. "Little bit of opposition keeps focus."

"A little bit, sure." Tig left the glass untouched against the table. "Not two hundred some pounds of it. What's the problem?"

Chibs gave him a sideways grin that lightened up the leftover darkness of his eyes, "He's bent up about losing his point spot when it comes to me. Doesn't know where he fits. And Rat's too far up your ass for you to need another man on ya."

"You put the kid there." Tig shrugged off. "I'm busy making sure he doesn't necessarily enjoy it."

"Think he's defending Jarry's honor too, actually. Like she needs a white knight back up."

Trager snorted into a chuckle, "He does have a soft spot for her."

"He's not the only one." Filip cocked toward his friend, brow arched into the way Trager just lifted his shoulder into a half smirking acceptance of the playful accusation.

"I can't help it. She's all sass. It makes me smile." Bright blue eyes went glassy and near clear. "Reminds me of somebody."

"I'm leanin' on making him Captain." Chibs offered quietly into a change of saddened subject matter. "You and I are gonna flip different sides of that coin. I know you wanna give the boy a chance."

The older man gave him a shrug as he swiped up the glass, "We'll deal with that argument when we get to it, Chibby. Let 'em both idle on the wanting for awhile. We'll see how it pans out."

He turned his glance back over the way Telford was twisting the bottom of the bottle around on the table again, sadness weighing on his shoulders again as his glance when glazed and unfocused. "Hey. Speakin' of Lieutenant Feisty?"

"You seem to keep tryin'." Chibs muttered over the bottle. "To speak of her, I mean."

"Maybe cause you need to." Tig slanted back tightly, his elbows leaning into his knees as he cocked his head beside the other man's arm. "And you're not really talking to anyone but her and me."

"She told me to come home." The Scot snorted over the bottle. "Like it's easy. And it's normal."

"It is easy." Tig murmured in response with a true sway of concern. "You put down the bottle and you just go home, Chibs. Maybe that's how you get to normal."

"There's more than that." Telford shook off an arguing swing of annoyance.

Trager just pushed off the table with a snort of derision, "Not if that's all she asked of you. Seems pretty straight forward to me. Just go home."

"I got things to do first."

* * *

><p>"C'mere."<p>

"I got it." Happy jerked his head to the side in the small bathroom, a oil stained towel jammed up into his nose as he squinted into the dirtied mirror.

"I said, come here." Chibs ignored the leftover slapping of anger and jerked the other man's eyes from the mirror with a fisted hand to his jaw, intentionally shoving Happy's head up as he pulled the towel away and used his other hand to pinch against the younger man's nose to bridge up the blood flow.

Even as the other man's had tipped farther back into the wall his eyes rose up to meet Telford's, a swirl of emotions both together and separate in the staring. Accusation and sadness, love and disgust, affection and anger, all an oil to water mix of there but apart. Chibs flinched into the silent comprehension that lingered in the other man's looking, ducking his head even as he lifted Happy's hand against his still bloodied up nose.

"Where are you, Hap?" he murmured between them as he jerked against the standard First Aid kit, rifling through what was left in it to find something he could use to wipe the ruddied red from the other man's skin. "Can't seem t'find you anymore."

"Right here, Prez." The garbled response was less enthusiastic than it usually would have been and the shine was gone from the younger man's eyes.

"No, you're far and away, boy." Chibs hushed slowly between them as he leaned a palm breaking against the sink, his weight angled as he studied the other man, the kit forgotten. "Y'know I trust you, yeah?"

"Yeah." Happy nodded his head down in a sudden swing of something that seemed near on shame and Chibs clipped his fingers back up under his chin, angling his head back up once again.

"You trust me?" the Scot asked into a labored quietness. "I'm tryin', Hap."

"Yeah, I know." The spread of mostly whitened cotton on the other man's shoulders suddenly took up the space before the sink and Chibs leaned off it, squinting a watching into the mirror as Lowman slapped on the tap and cupped water into his hand, dowsing it over his face as he snorted back against blood. "Everything just changed all at once, Chibs."

"Not everything." Telford braced his hand along the younger man's lower back, leaning into the rushed sound of running water. "You're still where you belong, brother. We're still in this."

"It's different." Happy's head lifted sharply, holding the other man's glance in the mirror as his jaw flicked in a tampened wiring. "You and Tig keep shuttin' me out. And I don't belong with the other guys."

"It's not intentional." Chibs hushed into him on an apologetic realization that he was more than right in his accusation. "Old guard. Younger men."

Happy's eyes focused over his own face suddenly and Chibs watched the internal searching happen with a tightly lined up spine. "We let 'em kill him, Chibs. I don't care how it happened. We let them force it."

"Y'mean I let them kill him." He whispered his own brand of self loathing as he lifted his hand against the back of the other man's head, wiping against chilled skin before leaned his palm down Lowman's back. "Jackson knew what he was doin', Hap. And I kept my promise to him. It's no shame on you if you don't want that patch when it's me you're - "

"Not what I said." Happy's growling and grating was a sudden fight against the mirror that showed the both of them how sharded up they'd become. "We let it happen."

"It's what he wanted." Chibs nodded once into the reflection before squeezing into the sweated cotton in the man's lower back. "For his sons. All of 'em."

A wince of hurt finally broached and broke all the other emotions in the other man's eyes a moment before he dropped his jaw and wiped the back of his hand against his battered nose. "Everything's changed. All at once."

"Stay with me, Hap." Chibs patted against the other man's back lightly. "Keep us whole."

"We're not whole." Happy whispered off quietly, shunting off the water before reaching for a swiping handful of paper towels.

"Help me bring us back, then. The way Jackie wanted it." He cinched his fingers back into cotton. "Yeah?"

There was a tensed up exhalation off the other man's chest before he nodded tightly, the back of his hand wiping against his nose a bit rougher than needed, "Yeah, okay."

Chibs drew in a slowly made breath, trying to work a warmth between them that didn't necessarily work as well as he'd hoped, "How about you stay with Wendy and the boys tonight? Yeah? Abel's givin' her hell."

"Should be watchin' you." Happy turned his back slowly into the wall, letting his shoulders lax as he leaned sidelong from the towel dispenser. "Where you goin', Prez?"

Chibs flicked him a warning glance as he turned his jaw, "Goin' home."

"Yeah." Happy nodded slowly as he lifted his jaw just as starkly. "That's what I thought."

"Not askin' you to stand next to her, Hap. Just want you next to me." He softened off as he pressed the door open with a shunted palm. "Where I think you still belong."

"I'll ride with you." The other man's voice was a quieted peace keeping as he started out of the cramped bathroom. "Make sure you're good before I go to Wendy's."

Chibs dipped his head as he moved from the room, a near relief loosening the wired up tensioning of his shoulders, "Sounds fine."


	10. Chapter 10

"Oi." He lifted aiming fingers in the other man's direction, voice sharpening between them as he tipped his palm up and drew Quinn forward. "C'mere, White Knight."

"White what?" Rane shunted him a confused glance, dumping the box of brake pads he'd been prying into onto the work bench, aiming slow steps toward the way Chibs had settled onto one of the stools in the bay.

"I want this shit settled." Chibs lifted his jaw into the way the larger man braced before him, his accent broad with an authority he hadn't realized was clear in his lungs, "You understand me? He's gettin' himself right. You give him the time. We've all been through too much this round."

"Yeah, I know." Rane shunted to the side, his hands wiping awkwardly and sheepish against the work shirt he'd drawn over his broad chest. "Sorry."

Chibs cocked a swayed grin up over the other man, exhaling slowly into the smile that had found a home on his lips. "You're pushin' on him to bring him back."

"Sorta." Quinn admitted softly. "Still don't like him second guessing things when he's supposed to be putting himself in front of you."

"He's doin' fine." Telford tugged his cigarettes from his pocket, offering the larger man one slowly. "Need you on somethin' else."

Quinn cocked him a questioning glance with a lift in his jaw, pulling a cigarette from the pack slowly, "Yeah?"

"Aye." Chibs tapped his own smoke out and palmed the pack back into his pocket, "Lyla needs a wall between her and Oso while she's covering Diosa. She doesn't like him and I don't much blame her. Ese's shifty and I don't like the way he looks at her. Maybe Marcus trusts him, I don't."

Quinn cocked him a suddenly knowing smirk. "White Knight?"

Chibs just gave him a grin, "Y'do seem to have a bend for chivalry."

"Chivalry's bullshit." The larger man took the lighter that Telford offered him. "I just don't like seeing women get hurt."

"Althea's on you too." Chibs murmured slowly and softly, catching the way the blonde perked him a confused glance over the flame of the lighter, head leaned forward as he sucked in a long drag of smoke. "Yeah?"

"What?"

"Things keep goin' the way they are… I'll need you there if I can't be." He just nodded a slow and swiftly quieted glance, leaving the intimation in the hushed up space between them as he took the lighter back, "There's gonna be a day, Quinn."

"Probably more than one." The larger man banked between them in a slow realization of understanding.

"Probably." Chibs lifted the lighter and kicked a flame off it, inhaling sharply before he turned his glance back up into knowing eyes. "She won't like it. She'll take it out on you. But - "

"I get it." The larger man nodded before reaching for another stool, tugging it up under him as he relaxed his body down, elbows banking onto his knees. "I'm good with it, Chibs."

The Scot clapped his palm lightly against the other man's leg as he pressed into standing, pinching the cigarette between his fingers, "Don't tell Tiggy. I'm gonna let him wonder."

"Where are things going, Prez?" there was a taunting in the other man's words as they leveled into his back.

"With her?" he snorted as he kept moving forward. "Probably toward a damn tragedy."

"Well, enjoy the ride at least."

The teasing amusement in the other man's tone had him grinning as he stepped out of the bay, letting the smile go near full as he flicked the cigarette and headed toward his bike, catching the way Happy was already waiting for him.

* * *

><p>The dimpled smile on him was something unavoidably intimately invasive, something she couldn't help but lean a surrender into as she studied the lanked length of him leaning in her doorway.<p>

"Y'changed the locks?" the cock of his brow matched the taunting heat of his hushed up whisper. "Really?"

"You're goddamn right I did." Ally fought back against the onslaught of his cheeky amusement with the only defense she had, her voice taunting back on a swing of accusatory strength. "You threatened to kill me."

"I didn't." he rolled off quietly, letting the side of his head press along her doorframe as he broke off a hard exhale. "Christ, Ally. We've been here."

"You - "

"Lemme in, love." his jaw was rubbing sidelong against her doorframe, hands stuffed boyishly into his pockets as he blinked low and slow. "Y'told me to come back."

"I did." She agreed into a slow softness, letting her head tip into the way her hand broached the door framed space between them, fingertips touching the edging of leather tentatively before her hand curled into it, eyes lifting a sure decision making between them.

The comfort of his smile lent wider into the way she pulled him forward across the threshold, her fingers still trapping up between them as he caught the door in his hand and shunted it still. "Am I stayin'? Hap's waiting."

"Guess that's up to you, Scotty." The whispered proximity of her mouth to his seemed like the only measurement he needed to find his place in the world for awhile. "Are you?"

He laid a slow looking over the cream satin pull of the familiar robe she had slid over thin but strong shoulders, tipping his head into the way it crossed down the center of her as he nodded slowly into an unspoken surrender of agreement. He turned fingertips along the curling of her hair against her shoulders, the warm brown of it banking into the silky creamy color that seemed too clean and untouched. Made him want the cleanliness of it near on as much he wanted the sure pure safety of her.

"Think I am." His head dipped into the way she was smirking a bold cockiness into his leaning. "Want to."

"Want me?" she asked him on a glittering tease.

"Want you." He nodded his mouth against hers tightly, letting his hands grasp into the welcomed cool silkiness of her as he dug closer, grunting confused annoyance into the way she pulled from his kissing.

"Then shut the damn door." She whispered as she tugged him tighter. "He'll get the point, I'm sure."

* * *

><p>"Stop it." Her fingers caught into his and twisted them tightly up as she turned, dragging his wrist up from the edge of satin with a shunt of surprising force. "Would you be patient?"<p>

"Why?" he argued into the way he pressed her back into the counter, letting her vice his wrist up into the center line of her sternum, their jaws a matched lift of solid stubbornness, "I'm not a patient man, Althea. You're playin' with me."

"You can wait." She nodded a slow softness between them, her eyes raking over his face so that she could study the way his lips were parted on a slacked exhale. "You don't just get everything you want, President."

"But I do." He argued into the way he leaned her into the counter, his other hand shunting up satin so that he was curling it fisted along the side of her rib cage. "And y'know that."

"Not here." She argued into a suddenly sure assertion, head cocked tightly into a sort of tightly made reprimand. "Not in your club, Scotty."

"No." he agreed into a suddenly gentled softness, releasing the stroke of fabric so that he could press his palm onto the counter, the other hand still drawn up tightly between them by her digging fingers. "You're not."

Ally tented her fingers tighter into his skin as he shifted, turning her jaw sidelong into the way he was suddenly watching her in a darkening slide of scrutiny. There was still a near taunting in his eyes but it was overtaken by a pinned prowling as he angled his hips, aiming a bit to the side to press her farther back. She didn't realize she'd made a mistake in a drawn up knee, meaning to stall him. At least not until he'd downed his face into her throat and rode a half erection into the tensing of her thigh, his mouth already laid open against her skin so that he could mark the soft paleness of it.

"Damn you." She hissed into the waved heat of him. "I mean it."

"I mean this too, my love."

The drive of his hips pressed her pinned back into the counter and she sighed into the whisper of his lips and beard against sensitive and already flushed up skin. Hard heat pressed into her thigh and she felt her muscles flex instinctively into the ready warmth of denim to satin to skin. He was letting her hold his hand still to give her the winning, but it didn't stop his knuckles from rubbing the skin of her chest.

"You can wait." She whispered her sweetly tinted eyes up and he blinked a surprise into their vulnerable softness. "It's not just fucking, Filip."

He blinked into the suddenly clear headed realization of her stalling, letting his muscles loosen into a forced relaxing as he lifted his palm off the counter and braced into her back, rubbing the silkiness that layered her still taut spine. "No, it's not."

"I'm not in your club." She asserted again softly, eyes holding his to a turning of truth making between them. "You don't always win."

He broke a mischievous smile between them, "We'll see."

"Filip - "

"I get it, Althea." He groaned his mouth against hers, keeping the interrupting kisses slowly made and long with gentleness before wiping their lips apart. "Just like the fight in ya. Keeps you bright eyed."

Her lashes lowered a little as she studied him, their heads turned into each other even as he leaned comfortably into her and the counter at once. "This isn't gonna be easy, ya know?"

"You're never easy, Lieutenant." He smirked into the taunting, his forehead crowning into her so that he could blink a glance down between them. "I'm gettin' sorta used to it."

The smile she brushed up over him was fully owned by pride and self satisfied amusement. "See? You are patient."

Chibs broke a grinning into the warmed space between them, twisting his wrist enough to convince her into loosening her hold, catching up her fingers so he could swipe his tongue into the perfume tinted skin of her inner wrist. He moved a smile onto her skin, rubbing it back and forth into the way her fingers flexed open before curling closed in a sighing acceptance.

"You son of a bitch." Her whispering cradled along his forehead and he just grinned a wink up over her, hand back bracing into the edge of the counter as he met the way she was drawing her thigh tighter into his crotch. "You're incorrigible."

"You asked for me, Ally. Told me to come back." He murmured over her, letting his glance dip back down the front of her slowly. "What's under this, huh? Y'think I didn't notice?"

"I knew you would." She watched his face as he loosened his hand from hers, fingers catching at the knot but staying hooked unmoving against it. "That was the point."

"And I'm incorrigible, Lieutenant?" he grazed over her tightly, flicking his eyes up over the way she was pressed back into the counter, hips angled against the intentionally pressing of him. "You're baitin' me and then tellin' me to wait."

Ally lifted a shrugging into the way she curled her hands back onto the counter's edge, her shoulders lifting slowly as she smiled. "And you did."

"Testing me isn't gonna get you what you want." He warned softly, tugging against the silken knot to draw them flush to each other.

"Really?" A blatant and smugly made smile curled her lips as she shrugged her shoulders up from their leaning. "Because you're still waiting."

"And losing my patience in it, Althea." He flicked her a tightened glaring. "Stop messin' me around."

"I'm not." She hushed into a sudden concern, her hand lifting into the jacked hardness of his jaw, "I just… didn't actually expect you to come back, Filip."

"This says differently." He tweaked against the fabric on a hushed murmur, bending patience into the vulnerably tentative sway of her closer into his chest.

She shrugged a curling smile into him, palms slaking slowly down the front of warm leather so that she could lean into the center of him. "You staying, Scotty?"

"Want me to?" he tipped over her, playfully tugging against the knot.

She just gave him a low slung smile, shaking her head slowly into a braced and complete acceptance, "Want you."

"I know y'do." He tossed up on a jaunted tease before kissing her sharply, letting a groaning into the way she let him ride his tongue along hers.

He broke the kiss off on a slow and nearly shy smile, giving her a look of shaded amusement as he pressed her back, wiping fingers off the silken satin before bracing his boots back. The leveling shift of her back flatly bare-footed against the floor made him smile farther and he wiped the break of a palm up against his jaw before starting to turn away from the creamy welcoming warmth of her. He'd forced his shoulders to settle on an intentional attempt at calming the rising flush on him and half a step had turned him angled away from her. His movement sharply culled still by the way she caught out into the edge of his cut.

"Don't you dare." She murmured on a slowly challenging whisper, a ride of amusement sliding her voice toward intentionally demanding. "Get your pale Scottish ass back here."

"Why?" he tipped toward her, shoulders leaning her way as a smirking laid full along his lips, "You wantin' something, Lieutenant?"

"You." She strafed her fingers against his shirt before jerking into the fabric and pulling him back into the same heated space he'd been occupying.

"Told me to wait." Chibs lifted innocent palms to his sides, letting her drag his hips back into hers as she glared into his taunting.

"Like you ever actually do what I tell you to do, Scotty." Ally hissed the accusation between them. "Come back here."

She was suddenly very warmly tight into the inches of his own space and he sank into the pulling she was prying on him, leaning into the lulled way she was kissing him closer, her tongue teasing a battle against his as her hands caught along his shoulders. He doubled the damning weight of her kiss with a force of his own, angling his head as he shunted her roughly back into the counter, pressing up into the space they were still bridging with tangling tongues.

"You coming or going? Huh?" The taunting in her caught up breathing was the tipped snapping of his leniency, his hands answering the defiance of her by grasping into an innocently flimsy silken sweetness. "I'd prefer the first."

The whimper she laid on his lips as he used the fabric to jerk her up higher was more than enough to lead his hands onto bared skin, fingers painting bruising impatience onto her thighs as he dug her off her balance and shunted her up onto the counter. The quick digging of her nails into his neck lifted his head into watching her as he scaled the hem of warm satin up, groaning a simple sound of white flagged surrender into the warm bare skin his fingers found along her hips. He flicked his hand down tightly between her legs, driving into a full wet heat that made her moaning the only sound he could hear past the thrum of blood in his ears.

"Really, Althea?" he rattled his lungs into a cagey rhythm that matched the rising run of hers, breathing out harshly against warm dark hair. "You're maddening."

"I miss you." Her stalled up whisper was such an innocently bright contrast to her taunting, a leaning lack of lying that had his lungs shocked devoid of oxygen as he turned his head tighter into it. "Make this work, Filip. Please?"

"Ally - "

"Please?" she whispered the pleading into a tracing along his wrist, her fingers following his to drive them into her on a moaning and for a moment he was blind into the darkness of her hair, letting her tuck them tighter. "It's your choice. It's your club."

He leaned a hushing noise into the shivering of her parted lips, kissing the comforting noise into her mouth as he curled the other arm along her back. Her head turning into his shoulder as she shifted smoothing fingers against his zipper drove every slant of heat he had down the core of him, shunting a noise of agreement off him. He rounded his thumb along her clit, keeping fingers full into her as he lifted his head, watching her swallow on a moaning as she worked his pants open, her teeth pinkening her bottom lip as she bit down on sound.

"No," he dipped his head and let his tongue lash against her lips. "you tell me what you want, darlin'."

She flinched him a cautious glance, fingers already curling around the hard length of him as he held the coppered tinting of her eyes. "Filip."

"You tell me." He leaned freely into the way she was already curving a knee against his hip, her calf clipping him forward as she aimed him closer, a flinch finding her eyes as he slid his fingers from inside her.

Ally gave him a slowly simple smile as her jaw lifted on a pleased sound, letting her hands lift from the way he was already driven half into her on a rushed sloping of his bared hips. "You."

"I know." He nodded his mouth back to hers on a rasped up growl, hands skating down to grip her thighs into another pulling as he tugged her onto the way he roughed into slick heat, fingers furthering the length of her legs wrapped against him.

He wasn't sure if she'd answered into the whispering she leaned along his jaw, her words too softly laden to overcome the rushed echo in his ears. But her fingers dug his hips closer as he arched her back, nails nicking crescented marks on his skin as he leaned both palms to the counter. He levered himself higher over her as he started slowly made thrusts into the angled stretch of her, his eyes following the lush length of her lashes as she let her eyes dip closed on a moaning.

"Again." His voice went long into an almost begging as he drove tightly into her, using the locked leverage of his forearms to press deep into her clenching, a smile curving on him as he listened to the shivered sound that passed her lips with every driven push.

He tipped his forehead down rounding onto hers, pressing the teasing words past clenching lungs, "Miss you too, maybe."

"Maybe." She jerked a whimper into how deeply he thrust back into her again, eyes still dipped closed as she leaned her head forward into the scent of dusted leather.

"More than maybe." He admitted into a speeding of his rhythm, one hand grasping up into her hair so that he could curl them together against his chest as he rode hard against her, the span of each of her palms burning heat up under his shirt. "Whattcha want, love? Huh? You tell me."

One of her hands stroked so quickly up against his jaw that he grunted into the way it made him jerk tighter, letting his head turn into the touch as he closed his eyes and leaned a long shuddering into her pressing whisper. "You know what I want, Filip."

"Aye." He kept his eyes shut into the way she was kissing along his cheek, hips shuddering toward coming. "I do."

Her whisper was all flush heat on his ear before she nipped against him, "So give me what I want then."

He couldn't help tugging into the double silkiness of hair and fabric as he came, pinning her into a roughly made and sharpened angle that had her knees riding higher as he shivered what was left in his lungs into her throat.

"Stay." She murmured into the way her hands clutched him still, one to his head and the other bracing his back as she held him at a swayed stretching. "Just stay."

"Gonna have to." He murmured a slow but breathy smiling into her hair as he laxed farther forward and dropped his jaw between them. "I haven't even gotten you undone yet."

She felt the smile flush her cheeks a farther pink. "Patience, Scotty."

* * *

><p>He'd left her to linger longer in the shower, same as usual, but left the curtain shunted open and dragged a scratching denim against muscle ached thighs as he watched her. His fingers blindly searched out his cigarettes and lighter from the leather he'd laid over the sink so that he could shunt back against it and suck down a stretch of nicotine while he watched water slide the skin he still tasted in the back of his throat. He smirked into the slow turn of her under the spray, both hands sluicing water down her hair to rinse it as she smiled nearly shyly back at him.<p>

"What?" her hands rose back up to wipe water off the sheer angles of her face, his eyes following the sure movements of her hands.

"Nothin' bad." He murmured on an exhalation. "That's for damn sure."

"Filip Telford, a man of good thoughts but not so grand intentions." She snarked at him before flicking a spray of water in his direction, bringing a cocked smirking to his lips as he let his glance shift down the toned and flushed wet of her. "Stop staring."

He chuckled into the next spray of water that shot in his direction, lifting the cigarette from her playfulness before piecing it back between his lips on a shake of his head and speaking on smoke, "I won't. I'm allowed."

"You see the marks you left on me?" she asked into the sliding arch of her spine, hands shunting off the water tightly before she lifted into stepping from the shoulder, hands sluicing her hair back again.

His shoulders broached a somewhat apologetic shift as he reached for the towel he'd left on the closed toilet, lifting it toward her as he sloped a glance over the reddened up markings along her muscled thighs. Chibs leaned forward off the sink and caught into the way she was wrapping up the towel, his larger hands taking over as he curled it against her and tucked it closed, using the fabric to bring her a quick step forward.

"I'd apologize if I didn't plan on doing it again." He cocked over her on a murmur of proud haughtiness, smirking into the lazed and droll look she gave him.

"Marking territory?" she pried the towel tighter over her breasts, letting him lean his head into another inhalation before arching a brow at her.

"Do I need to?" he shrugged as he exhaled to the side, letting her wipe dampened hands down the run of his chest.

Ally just rolled him a derisive glance and a shove before shifting past him, her fingers prying into the knotted wetness of her hair as she moved from the bathroom. She left him wordless and still as he snorted and leaned the cigarette under the tap, dousing it with a quick run of water. He flicked it into the garbage on his way back into her bedroom, letting his shoulder slant up along the doorway she he watched her rough both hands through damp hair at the side of the bed.

"Longer I look at you the prettier you get."

"I'm gonna take at that as a compliment, I think." She cocked back over her shoulder quietly, "Because it could really go either way."

"Bullshit." He sharpened after her and the smile that turned her lips as she angled him her profile was a warm enough welcome to the way he stepped into her back. "Y'know what I'm saying."

"Sometimes I really don't understand what you're saying, Telford. I just smile and nod politely." She dropped her wet hair back into him as he went rubbing into the fabric of the towel. "Do we need to talk about all of it tonight?"

"Don't need to talk about it at all." he countered tightly. "Rather sleep."

"We do." She argued even as she let him angle and arm along her waist, fingers curling up the overlapped ends of the towel. "But sleep sounds nice."

He smirked a softened hushing into the bright smell of her shampoo, "Then get to bed."

"Why do you have make everything sound so damn deliciously pornographic?" she was already shunting back the sheet and comforter, ignoring the smoothing of his voice.

Chibs just grinned off a shrug, "Accent. Does things to some women."

"Yeah." She smirked her eyes shut into letting her body drop into the mattress, her hand angling blindly into the way his weight met the pressing of hers on the mattress, fingers catching up into his beads. "You ain't kiddin'."


	11. Chapter 11

He didn't mind that she tended to push and shove in her sleep near on as much as she tended to pull him closer. It wasn't necessarily new to him, and maybe it had surprised him at the first, but now it was an arching remembrance of comfort to catch her thin wrists together into a single curled fist. He pulled against her arms, breaking a riding hush along her cheek as he used the other hand along her hip to draw her up and over, leaning the chilled length of her onto him. The stilted shunt of her elbows tucking in and pulling against his fingers led his whispering more on a comforting as she jerked awake into the movement. Her breathing was a rapid stillness until she'd realized he'd shifted her into a controlling weight on top of him.

"What?" the petulance in her sleepy tone was enough to cock an amused lift of his brow, his head shifting against the pillow as cold and nearly still damp dark hair spilled over his chest.

"Fightin' with shadows again, love." His hand braced up against the back of her head, letting his jaw ride against the crown of her hair. "You're taking it out on me."

"Sorry."

It was such an easily made and sleep full apology, leaning quiet with innocent affection. She so rarely apologized for much anything and he savored it by smiling as he looked over the way she was jutting lower on his hips so that she could stretch out along his chest. Chibs loosened his hold at the pulling of her palms, exhaling into the pressing weight and the way she was crossing her arms under her head into a shifting that he didn't think she even realized she was making.

"Blanket." He taunted the teasing into the way he was tracing her hair off her face and she grunted annoyance, lifting her head as she dropped a hand enough to pull against the edge of the fabric she'd unknowingly shunted away.

"Annoying." She murmured as she rubbed her face back down over his chest, letting his fingers take over the pulling of the blanket as he curled it up over the gracefully leaning line of her spine.

"Abusive." He muttered back in countering as he drew both hands into her hair and wiped it full off her face, lifting her head carefully as she blinked muddled hazeled eyes at him.

And had she been more awake to be a witness, maybe she would have noticed the way he let his eyes linger longing over the pass of her face, but she shut her eyes wearily into the rubbing of his fingertips on her scalp. Ally lifted her head farther into the broaching touch, sighing into the way the heel of each strong palm was curled up under her jaw as his fingertips rubbed just higher than her ears and eased circles toward her temples. He figured the moaning noise of appreciation she made into the movement was his pardon for waking her and he wiped down her cheeks before drawing her head back down along his chest.

"What are we doing, Scotty?" her fingers were pressing down against the line of his daughter's name on his chest, head turned into the way her other palm was under the flat of her cheek.

"At the moment?" he slid a strand of dark hair through his fingers. "Survivin'."

"You know what I mean." Her jaw angled up onto the back of her hand, eyes a bit brightened up in waking. "Where are we?"

He cocked his head sidelong into her pillow as he let his breathing lax, exhaling through his nose as he intentionally tangled himself into the pretty lulling of her eyes. "We're not endin' this til it's done, Ally. And I'm not done with you."

"I did end this." She argued faintly, avoiding how deep the darkened warmth of brown welled as he watched her.

"Sure, y'did. How's that workin' for ya?" he tweaked against her hair plaintively. "Go on back to Patterson. Tell 'er you're keepin' me close. She can eat the shite you feed her for a damn long while before it becomes a problem. When it does, I'll handle it."

She swallowed as she flicked a glance up at him. "That's your solution? For me to lie to cover for your club so that you can - "

"Slow yourself, love." He ticked his finger lightly against her arm, "I didn't say lie. I told you I'm straightening things up. Just keep her waiting until I can get us wiped clean."

Her eyes glinted in the darkness, head lifting slowly higher as she pressed harder onto the tattoo, her palm laying flat onto his chest, "You'll never be completely clean, Filip. You boys are too far down to ever make it back up again."

The swallow he made into her accusation stretched his shoulders farther back into her bed in an acceptance of reality. "Probably not, Lieutenant. And clean isn't what I am or ever been. But maybe clean enough to save what's left of us."

"That what you're doing?" she wiped her palm down his chest before letting her body lax back down against him, her fingertips teasing at his beard, "Saving what's left of yourself?"

He bit down on the too near true accusation she'd made, his jaw aching into the grit of the motion before he exhaled. "Maybe so."

"Maybe so." She agreed, her fingers wiping along his bottom lip and too slow to draw away from the way he nipped against one of them. "I'll take what I can get then."

He finally let a smile into her sudden acceptance, jutting his hips up into the way she was stretched and straddled over the length of him, "You've gotten all you're getting."

The shrewd and delicate smile she laid over him was terrifyingly perfect in its complete subjugation of his ability to breathe, "That's just not true, Filip."

* * *

><p>Something in him still told him to leave her sleeping peacefully and even knowing that it would annoy her, he had a half a thought that maybe she'd understand. She was too quickly finding the fragmented pieces of him and piecing them together with wised up eyes that he sometimes had a hard time avoiding the jumble colored prettiness of – and it was making it farther difficult to make up falseness or shy her glance sideways from the things he didn't necessarily want her seeing.<p>

But then, frankly, he liked the way she looked when she was sleeping long in the mussed bed he'd just left. She always seemed lushly warm and sated comfortable and peaceable. He liked looking at her vulnerable because she spent so many of their moments together trying to match him in strength and he enjoyed the unguarded innocence. And maybe he still didn't kiss her goodbye. Because he still couldn't bring himself to bend completely into her pulling when Jackson's voice was still a close echoing in his ears and the worth of his brothers was still outweighed the heat of her proximity. But he let his knuckles rake lightly over the stretch of her bare shoulder before he turned sure fingers along the edge of the blanket, drawing it higher against her downwardly stretched rib cage before turning toward the door.

And it was his own possession that stopped him. Or possessions, rather.

Because she'd left his rings scattered table top across the room and he counted them and the way they were faced upright beside each other.

"Take them." The sleepily hazed heat of her voice was assuring and held no accusation, just something damn near affection as he jolted in slight surprise. "They're yours."

He could hear her shifting from behind him as he cocked a slow glancing over the way they were just innocently laid along wood. "Sorta like 'em there."

"Uhkay." Her voice was still muzzed with sleep but the sweetness of the way it brushed his back was enough to steady him. "Lock up behind you, huh?"

"Call ya later, yeah?" he was already slinging leather against his back, avoiding a glance back at her.

"Sure, Scotty." He could hear enough smirking in her tone to know how plaintively her lips were curved. He didn't need to see her smile to know how teasingly warm it was.

* * *

><p>He blinked a swift surprise into the way Venus indisputably lifted his head into a kiss that strafed warmly along his cheek, affection sparking it brightly amused as he cocked a mirthful glance past her toward where Trager was shrugging. Tig just lifted his helmet off his bike in a wordless lacking of explanation as he smirked back.<p>

"Good morning, Filip." The cultured affect of her drawling accent was damn near as softly affectionate as the kissing and he couldn't help but smile warily into the way her thumb rubbed against the shaded lipstick left along his cheek.

And it oddly didn't bother him as much as he'd expected, even when her knowing eyes and large palm raked his scar before dropping off.

"Mornin', darlin'." He murmured as he lifted his sunglasses into his hair, cocking a glance around the broad length of her shoulders toward the other man. "Need to steal this one awhile."

"I have plenty of appointments to keep me plenty busy today anyhow." Her hand had graced his shoulder and as she turned there was a sudden warring between the haunt of her perfume and the tracing of sugary warmth that was still laying his skin, another woman's scent still keeping him lulled in the early morning's sun. "You boys are staying out of trouble today, am I correct in that assumption?"

"Of course." Tig flashed her a smile that made his eyes spark up brighter into blue. "No problem, baby."

"I suppose I should be asking you, Mister President." She directed the sudden shrewdly scrutinizing glance in his direction and Chibs just flashed her a smirking in response.

"Not a bit of trouble." He lifted gloved fingers in a crossing over his chest, back spiking straighter from the seat of his bike into the promising he made. "I swear."

"Good. I'll see you both later." She was already stepping back onto the sidewalk from between the bikes, her heels carrying an echo of staccato surety as she looped her bag higher onto her shoulder and turned backwards. "Be my good boys. I know you can."

He just grinned into the waving she left them off with before relaxing his arms back into the bars of his bike, turning his head into watching the other man watch her. Tig was smiling with a wildness of endearing amusement, shaking his head into humor even as he strapped his helmet on. When the lighter glance finally turned back he just lifted another helpless shrug between them that had Chibs chuckling softly.

"And y'give me shit, day in, day out." Chibs shot up between them on a pursed teasing, keeping his voice intentionally blanked, "Althea this and Althea that."

"What's your point?" Tig shrugged as he braced his palms onto his handlebars.

Chibs snorted, "Pussy whipped?"

The bark of laughter that Tig let off curved an arc into the sound of his bike roaring up, a wink flicked between him just before the lifted his hand and gave the other man the middle finger.

* * *

><p>"Speakin' of AJ - "<p>

"Don't you fuckin' start." Chibs slapped out against the other man's lower back, aiming him into Red Woody's door with a half annoyed glaring. "Really?"

"You brought her up." Tig cocked back sidelong as he tugged his sunglasses off, stalling slowly just inside the entry way so that he could squint into the change of lighting, turning his glance back toward the other man. "Thought maybe that was your way of telling me something?"

"Yeah?" Chibs flicked him a darkening look as he passed by him, "Like what?"

"Like that's where you spent last night." Trager's voice hashed up behind him in a swinging amusement. "I got eyes everywhere, Prez. I'm takin' this patch seriously."

"Everywhere, huh?" Telford tossed back as he angled his steps toward Lyla's door, shrugging a supposed innocence between them.

"Yeah," Tig nodded into a thrummed grinning as he tucked his glasses away, following the other man's steps, "everywhere."

"Hopefully not in her kitchen." He chalked up a quick grin between them before fully turning away from Trager's suddenly brightened smiling, keeping aimed down the hall even as the other man laughed warmly along his back.

* * *

><p>"You don't sit down with brown without Quinn, a'ight?" he tipped a tightened down glass up over the rims of his glasses as he cast the words over her desk, the papers she handed over to him spread across his lax lap. "I can't spare him all hours but if they want a meet you don't move without him. Clear?"<p>

Lyla nodded quickly, her hand folded up under her chin as she leaned into her side of her desk, catching a glance over the two of them before giving him a smile, "I get it. Thank you."

"If Marcus questions it, send him to Tig." Chibs murmured before letting his glance dip back down over the papers. "Ignore the others. Quinn'll handle them. What the hell am I looking at?"

"Quarterly comparison for Red Woody." She supplied softly.

Chibs banked her a quickly dazed glance before turning his head toward his Vice President with a shrug, "What the hell is she talking about?"

"Money." Tig grinned at him, a humor still tweaking his eyes brightly. "The kitchen? Really? Good girl."

He ignored the other man's teasing before glancing back toward Lyla's quirked smile of confused amusement. "Quarterly comparison. You've doubled profits at the least."

"Why do you pretend not to understand these things?" she shrugged her hand in a slow wave between them.

"It's money." Tig snorted along his side. "Of course he understands it."

"This is good news." Chibs murmured as he leaned forward, fingers searching over the other paperwork she'd laid out before him. "Diosa?"

The hissing noise of apology she made matched the dip of her head. "You knew you were gonna take a serious hit."

"Aye." Filip nodded as he finally shifted apart the paperwork between the two businesses, angling his head. "I was hopin' the gain would be back up higher than this by now."

"Little short on girls." Lyla dipped her head forward into a starkly realistic darkening, the movement making her innocence a little dusky. "And repairs have already eaten up your portion of the earnings. Who's kitchen?"

He snapped a glancing up into the way she'd directed the question toward Trager, his glance narrowing on the other man in the momentary quiet.

"The Sheriff's."

"Traitorous son of a bitch." Chibs guttered out as Lyla's eyes cast widely and brightly back over him in a surprised humor.

"It is true then." She leaned both hands into the edge of her desk, the waves of blonde dropping forward as she cast a wondering look over him. "That woman's a ball breaker, Chibs."

He arched a brow into the half smirking he gave her before lifting a slow shrug into the way she was staring over him. "They're still whole so far."

* * *

><p>"Hi. Got the message y'left."<p>

"Hi." He felt his lungs brace up still into the swinging accented sweetness, letting his eyes slide closed into the way he laid his shoulders back into the wall. "Y'all right, darlin'?"

"I'm fine, da." There was a jutting and defensive jerk to his daughter's tone over the line, her voice caging into the same bracketed terseness her mother's sometimes took. "Don't need everyone checkin' up on me, y'know?"

"I know." Chibs felt his lungs lease out another round of oxygen as he hooked his heels hard into the floor and let the leather on his back skid down the length of the bricked walling. "Sorry. It's just - "

"Y'really President then?" Kerrianne's voice was a quick interruption, the tone and timbre of it already older than he'd expected, clearly owned and brightly accusatory in its searching for truth. "What Trini says is true, yeah?"

He flinched his eyes shut against the open emptiness of room, avoiding the way that they'd wedged as much of the clubhouse ephemera as they could into the upstairs of Scoops, blocking the way so many unmoving Reapers were watching him. "Aye. It's true."

The laying of quietness over an ocean long line was battering on his lungs and he swallowed to try and force air down.

"You gonna be safe?"

He blessed the worry in her tone with a saddened smile. "Of course, baby. More worried about you. Want you t'listen to your mother. She's knows what she's doin', Kerrianne."

"Yeah, I know." There was a near petulant acceptance to her voice and he smiled into the sound of a youngness rounding her voice again, aching into the child he'd missed watching grow up. "Y'know what she's like though, da."

Filip chuckled a grin as he pried the phone closer to his ear, trying to keep her voice conspiratorially warm, as though they could just tease on each other for another few hours or so. "I know. Smart, though. Taught y'too much. You could both run circles round me."

"M'not comin' over." Her sudden forceful arguing was a jolt that lifted his head, blinking into the way she was very quickly shutting down any request he could have made at bringing her closer. "I still have classes."

"I know." He whispered the words over the line. "Maybe for break, yeah?"

"So you're not comin' back?" the listing hurt in her voice carried loud enough for him to hear and shut his eyes shamefully into it. "Thought maybe you'd have to. Maureen said y' might."

A flinching made him suck against his teeth as he shook his head tightly, "You stop listenin' to Trini and Maureen, y'hear me? They don't know shite about shite right now. You listen t'your mother and me. And I'm sayin' go back to classes. No slackin' off, hear me Kerrianne?"

There was a sort of warmth of amusement in her voice, "I hear ya."

"You'll be the first to know when I'm comin' back, a'ight?" he offered as a softened apology to his impatience. "I'll make it soon. Gotta calm things on both ends first, okay?"

She waited him out in another silence, testing the veracity of his statement.

"I mean it, baby." He offered quietly.

"Okay." Her voice had quieted a little but at least it was still warm. "Promise?"

"I do." He hushed back. "I miss you."

"Miss you too."

He let a smile slacken his jaw, "And I'll keep callin' to check in. Because I'm your father and y'can deal with it or disown me."

"Wouldn't give ma the satisfaction." She chirped at him quickly, an easy taunting of humor raising the pitch of her voice, "Love ya, da."

He responded in kind to the most kind voice he'd been needing to hear, letting the line cut dead before he thumbed the phone off and pressed it into stilled lips, his lungs loosening their ratcheted tightness as he exhaled through his nose.

"Cheeky little shit." He snorted a laugh into the phone before shoving up from the crouched position, groaning into the ache that still rang in his muscles.


	12. Chapter 12

A flickering of fraternal jealousy primed his hands into closed fists, eyes thinning on a flinch as he forced himself away from leaning into the other man's blankly despondent stillness. He kept his shoulders lifted with a tensed force, head up into the way he scraped his teeth along his bottom lip, rounding his glance over the way Venus was leaned into Trager's side with her finely manicured hand caged low and comfortably against the way the Reaper rode his spine. Chibs winced a flickering glance down in the surprisingly quiet sanctuary, knowing that he was at least passingly familiar with nearly every face that surrounded him. Knowing that he didn't necessarily want to deal with a one of them, the earlier warmth of his morning shredded gracelessly into the coldness of a church he didn't feel he truly belonged in.

He'd loved the woman deep into the heat of his own lungs but he wasn't sure yet that he knew how to forgive her for her twisting. Because Gemma'd always been the strongest of them, always been the hands they'd bent their breaking pieces into – and her own lie-spun crashing had escalated every ache in their lives for a long while. It was the first real urging he'd truly had to grab up and run since Jackson had laid the patch into his palm – and it was because he couldn't face his own adopted mother's betrayal when it had brought them all so low to dust. For a choking moment he wanted to bury every inch of what they'd all wrought into the ground with her.

"You okay?"

Chibs jerked a surprise into the whispering, knowing that Happy was too near to too damn close on one side as he angled his head toward the hitched voice on his other. The quick annoyance that had ridged his spine up laxed loosely into the paled face Chucky was turning up at him, a wealth of sorrowed innocence filling the man's features. Chibs nodded once into a blatantly obvious lie, lifting his arm against the shorter man's shoulders as he cocked his head closer.

"You?"

"Not really." Chucky answered quietly, his much smaller stature making him seem farther childish in his sadness.

"I know." Telford murmured as he lifted his other hand toward the pews. "Y'come sit with me, yeah?"

"I think I'd like that."

Chibs just passed him an echo of a smile before drawing the shorter man forward with him, his other hand catching and gripping blindly into Trager's leather to pull them along into the church.

* * *

><p>And it wasn't that he didn't want to cry.<p>

And it wasn't that he didn't hurt in his missing of her.

It was that he wasn't sure he had any tears left to lose that weren't already assigned or attached to those still living.

How many more could he give up for the already dead when there were still too many worrying variables hovering about leftover loves?

He lifted his arm once again along the smaller man's shoulders, palm pressing chilled into the opposite side of Chucky's bald head as he turned a tight and brotherly kiss into the man's temple. The awkward but battered sniffling that Marstein made was stunted up by fake fingers as his head bowed lower in a sort of shame. Chibs just rubbed the flat of his palm into the back of the other man's head, the words the unfamiliar Reverend spoke in front of them a slow banked droning that he couldn't necessarily focus on. Especially when he exhaled into the way Chucky's head and shoulders aimed tighter into his side in a crowned downing of his upper body. Chibs blew out a slow breath, forcing his lungs into a measured slowness so that he could keep softened touches along Marstein's back.

And the sudden jerk of fingers into his pants on the other side, Tig's fist digging so tightly into the fabric that it pulled taut - it made a subtle linking that managed to follow on down the line to where Venus was leaned into Trager's opposite side.

He closed his eyes against crying as his palm dropped over Trager's, knowing she'd be pissed as hell if every one of them dropped into a puddled up mess in the middle of loving her.

It wasn't that he didn't want to cry.

It was because she wasn't there to let him any longer.

* * *

><p>It wasn't until his boots had been once again glossed damp by suddenly too familiar cemetery grass that he'd lost the control, his gloved hands caged into the sides of his brother's face as they leaned into nodding agreement of sorrow, foreheads pressed together. Tig's hands were just as tightly gripping, fingers pried so deeply into Telford's leather that his nails were skiffing crescented marks into its darkness.<p>

"I can't, Tiggy." Chibs drew the other man's head down as he shook his head, kissing sharply against Tig's chilled forehead before shoving them parted into the rough turn of his steps away from everyone else. "I can't."

"Chibs." Tig's voice broke after him but it was less than imploring and more a mere sympathy of friendship as the Scot continued walking.

And when he felt the drawn nearness of Happy along his back he turned sharply back, flat palms shunting into the other man's chest before lifting a warning hand, "No."

"You're not - "

"No." Chibs murmured past the breaking hiss of his shuddered up breathing. "I'll be fine."

"Chibs." Hap's face seemed pale with concern and a sort of hurt. "You shouldn't go alone."

Telford shook his head tightly, "You're not comin' with me, Hap. Not this ride."

"Where you goin'?" there was a worry in the younger man's voice.

He turned away without explanation, aiming for his bike and letting his lungs burn as he refused breathing until he'd realized that the other man wasn't following him.

* * *

><p>"Chibs with you?"<p>

She blinked surprise into the questioning, letting her shoulders shunt back into her office chair as she frowned into the subtly familiar voice over her cell. "Trager? How'd you get this number?"

"I'm standin' next to Oswald, AJ. He's got everyone's number." He broke off quickly, the usual playful patience in his voice coming off rasped dry. "Is Chibs with you?"

"I'm still at work." She hushed back, a glance flicked along her door before shaking her head into a slow turn of confusion, shifting her chair back so that she was leaning away from the doorway. "What happened?"

"Gem's service." The explanation went suddenly vacant of any emotion at all. "He cut out a couple hours ago. Never met us back at the house. Wanna have him call me if you see him?"

"Tig." She let a surprisingly soothed layer of softness into her voice, "He probably just needed the space."

"I get that." Trager's tone jerked over the line, "I need to make sure he's whole at the end of the day, get me?"

"This number?" she questioned into a force of patience.

"Yeah."

"I'll call you." She murmured before hanging up, shaking her head into the sudden flared ache that settled deep into her shoulders.

* * *

><p>"Your brothers are worried about you." She offered softly as she stepped up her own sidewalk, watching the way he was rolling a lit cigarette in his fingers, the smoke a curling blue that hazed around his bent head. "Where were you, Scotty?"<p>

"Sat with Juice awhile. Took a ride." He still hadn't lifted his head, even at her nearness, his eyes tracing along the denim and leather boots that stepped into his sight line and stopped. "Needed to breathe."

Her hand was a slinging warmth along the side of his head as her hip angled toward him, her fingers curling his ear before she drew him forward on bent shoulders, breaking the way he was leaning into her hip. Chibs let his eyes press shut into the way her thumb was still running the shell of his ear as her fingertips laid along the back of his neck, the touch slow and sure and far more lenient than he'd expected.

He let his forehead lean into the warm stretch of denim, the sugared smell of her wrapping up the inward draw of his shoulders. "I couldn't put her in the ground, Ally. I know how y'felt about her, but - "

She hushed the slanting sharpness of his voice with a quick throaty noise, fingers lifting on his jaw as she dampened a look of head shaking acceptance over him. "That doesn't matter. You loved her."

He accepted the slight thrum of jealousy in her tone as her shoulder lifted but only because there was still a gentleness of sympathy on her face that seemed so raucously out of place in his life. And awfully simply out of place on her. And the pureness of how innocently she looked over him with such sure compassion of his loss – it made him regret more than the threat she kept harping on. It made him regret not telling Jackson to get bent when it came to sanctioning how closely he kept to the heat of her or didn't. Made him mourn Tara in a suddenly thrumming moment of gently feminine recognition that told him Tig had been maybe more than half right… Even if unconsciously, Jackie had made sure that once the good doctor had gotten gone, nobody could be happy in his stead. Not in the midst of his crashed and broken down burning.

And the full pure comprehension of sadness that was still in her eyes made him remember his own swayed sympathy for the boy's loss.

And it wasn't until she made a swift noise of disapproval and stroked her thumb along his cheekbone that he realized his vision had gone blurred.

"Get up, Filip." She nodded quickly into the pulling she lifted against his jaw, "C'mon. You're not sitting on my step all night."

"I'm sorry." He told her quietly, head angling as he toed the cigarette into the grass with his boot, glancing back up into the cocked way she was looking over him.

"For what?" she asked into a suddenly concerned nervousness.

"For maybe many things." He hushed out as he let her pull at him, his lungs expelling into a sort of shied embarrassment as he wiped a gloved hand over his face and avoided her multi-hued eyes.

Ally just snorted a derisive look at him as she curled her keys into his hand and aimed him turning toward her door, "Aren't we all?"

* * *

><p>"He's fine. Relax." She let the phone perch between her shoulder and her ear, wedging it there as she dipped the lip of the whiskey bottle against a pony glass and poured it tall before moving on to the next. "I've got it."<p>

"Knew he'd end up there." The vaulting sigh of relief made its way over the line on a hard exhalation and Trager's voice seemed to almost perk a little. "Lemme talk to him."

"No." she answered softly, "I said I've got it, Tig."

There was a beating of silence over the phone before Trager's voice curled heated and near angry. "I need to talk to him, Sheriff. You want me on your goddamn doorstep in the next half hour? I can make it happen and don't you think I won't. I like you, Jarry. Doesn't mean I won't shut your shit down if needs be."

"Jesus Christ." She flicked the bottle bottom hard into the counter. "Really? Fine. Your dick is bigger than mine."

"AJ - "

"Cut the cutesy bullshit, Trager. You win." She hashed over the line. "Gimme a minute, all right?"

She could hear the rushed exhalation he let off as she kept the phone against her shoulder, glasses lifted in both hands as she moved from the kitchen and toward the bedroom, steps intentionally slowly made and softly letting against the carpet in a petulant play on his patience. She cradled a smile onto her lips even though she didn't necessarily feel it rise to her eyes as she caught the way Telford was leaned onto the side of her bed, one of his hands rubbing into the back of his neck. He'd left his cut against one of her chairs, the Reaper face down as opposed to usual.

"Hey." She murmured as she angled a leg between his knees and aimed one glass toward him. "Phone."

He palmed the glass into a confused look upward, his other hand reaching into the way she was leaning down so that he could take her cell, his hand lifting the glass away as she eased her hips farther into his space. Chibs watched her shifting, letting his shoulders rise into the way she lifted the other knee to the mattress at his side, straddling across his lap as he lifted the phone and downed his jaw into it.

"Aye?"

"Just checking in, Prez." Tig's voice was a riding comfort on him, concern still swaying the tone as he leaned his shoulders straighter, her hips laxing down as he flexed his feet flat to carry the weight of her against his thighs. "Making sure you're level."

"I'm good, Tiggy." He reflexively smiled into the way she was sipping against whiskey and watching his face with an easy softness. "You get where you're goin' for the night?"

"Yeah." The older man agreed into softness. "You?"

Chibs just smirked tiredly into the questioning, arching a brow into the way she was already catching open buttons on his shirt as she took another swallow from her own glass, "I believe so. Seems I'm being undressed."

"No wonder she didn't wanna put you on the phone." Tig's voice chipped humor over him as she gave him a cocked glaring, her fingers still sure along the next button down. "I may've just riled her up. Sorry."

"It's fine. Sleep, brother." Chibs hushed over the line, his eyes dipping closed into the wipe of her fingers against his throat. "Let her rest, Tiggy."

"Yeah."

He lifted the phone into her reaching after hanging up, taking a long swallow of the whiskey she'd brought him before drowning his face down onto her collarbone with a grated noise off his throat. Ally smiled a lazy look over the laxed forward dropping of his body, keeping her spine shot up straight to keep leverage against his pressing as she dropped the cell to the mattress.

"He's very defensive of you."

He shrugged slowly into the lift of his head, "Don't have much left but each other."

"Thank you." She nodded playfully, smirking as she tipped her head. "But I get it."

"Do you?" he asked into a tightness that was only swayed by a sip against his glass, his eyes rising deviously dark to hers. "Don't think you really do, darlin'."

"I don't dare imagine the things you two have done together." She shook her head into an intentionally softened up rounding, her fingers tipping onto the glass he offered up to her before he curled his palms against her hips. "Women included."

A flickering of a smirk finally broke over his lips before he drew her closer, angling her spine into a flushing pull as she drew both glasses back and let him wedge tighter into the center line of her chest. He was rubbing his face long and slow against the dipped hem of her shirt, seemingly boyish and weary even as his palms curled the fabric into knots along her spine.

"M'not a good man, Althea."

Her head angled into the way the words had been self loathingly wiped into her collar bone, her fingers prying tightly onto mostly full whiskey glasses that had been forgotten. "I didn't ask for a good man, Filip. You think I don't know what you are?"

"Ally - "

"Think we've established the fact that I'm not necessarily an angel myself." Her head dipped into hushing along his temple. "I wanted you."

"And why?" he lifted one his hands to wipe along his face.

She lifted a leaning shrug as she voided the weakness that was winging through his breathy tone, taking a swallow from her glass and letting the taste lay along her tongue as she blinked back over him, "At first?"

"At all?" his fingers were digging her closer again, the sadness slowly fading and trading in with a slight amusement.

There was a warm cockiness to the way she was pressing down into him, both shoulders confidently leaned back as he rubbed along her ribs, "You seemed like the only one with enough dick to handle me, Scotty."

The flushed smirk he lifted into her jutting tone spread toward a widening grin and a breathy chuckle as his eyes tipped a lighter brown. "Y'really just say that?"

"Metaphorically and literally, even." She smiled playfully over him, already stretching away so that she could lean off him, the ride of her jeans low on her hips as she set the glasses aside to the table and stepped back into his leaning. "You're not a good man, Filip? I'm not an easy woman."

"I can attest to that." He murmured into the way she was wiping along his face with slow and intentionally gentled touches. "Bloody goddamn train wreck."

"So get off the rails," She tapped against his nose, forcing him to blink slight annoyance at her suddenly accusatory tone. "or just fucking lay down, President."

He palmed along the outsides of her thighs, thumbs rubbing downward on denim as he downed his head into her stomach and dug into the fabric. "Just need you close tonight, Ally. M'not - ."

"I know." She hushed over him softly as her palm braced the knotted up ridge between his shoulder blades, rubbing into the fabric of his shirt "Seriously, lay down. You look like hell and I told Trager I'd take care of you."

The fact he smiled a sadly affectionate acceptance into her pushing instead of fighting against it told her that he was tipped far farther into grieving than she'd realized and she just let her fingers brush along his shoulder as he leaned back on the mattress.

"Boots." She hushed over him as she tugged a teasing against his pant leg. "Off."

The grunted noise he made had her smirking as he shunted them off but left the lay of his spine flat to the bed.

"You think I'm a train wreck?" she asked as she leaned sideways onto the mattress beside him, lifting her head over his and letting her fingers hold it up still.

Telford tipped her a wearily made but sweetly apologetic smile, "Sure, but welcome to Grand Central Station, love. We're all wrecked up here."

She inhaled slowly, blinking a careful surety into letting her fingers lift to wipe along his lips, "I'm sorry. About Gemma."

"You're more like her than y'like to admit, Lieutenant." The aching he looked over her with had her curbing her instantaneous defensive reaction, biting it down into a strained smile. "Slappin' at threats and swingin' fierce judgment."

"Leave the mommy kink at the door, Telford." She teased a kiss onto his shoulder as she spread into his side, forcing his arm up under her head as she lifted curled fingers into the downed opening of his shirt, "I'm just not that kind of woman."

* * *

><p>"Don't." her fingers caught up under his throat in a hold against his leaving that surprised him into a half smile of amusement, swallowing under the curling tightness of her fingers.<p>

"There's a vibration under my ass, love." Chibs murmured into his gentle shifting. "And I'm pretty sure it's not you."

"Ignore it." She groused higher onto his chest, pressing back down against his shoulder so that she could wipe her sleepiness into his shirt. "This is my favorite part of you."

"Think the Sheriff should probably be answerin' her phone." He used the other hand to pry the cell out from under the stretch of his hips, passing it toward her curled up frame as he turned his jaw into her head, "Althea."

"Second favorite." She grunted as she lifted her head and pulled the phone from him, flicking a glance at the screen before rolling her eyes and answering with a sharpened impatience.

He watched the sleekened control that shifted her features as she spoke and he assumed she was speaking to one of her officers just by the laced up shifting of assurance. Weariness and a lack of caring had him shifting up to a straighter angle on the bed, dragging her along into the movement as he curled his fingers up under her shirt, letting himself lull into the way she was murmuring.

"Children and idiots." Her voice caged muttering into the way she dropped the phone back to the bed once again, her hair splashing wild over his chest as she dropped her head roughly along his collarbone. "God favors innocents and fools. I get stuck with the latter."

Chibs smirked into the sharpened tone of sleepy annoyance she used, thinking better of once again reminding her how near she sounded to a woman he'd once known. "Y'get cranky when you're tired, darlin'."

"I get cranky when I'm interrupted in general." She tightened up higher onto his side, smiling into the cupping of his palm along her head as she drove a leg up over his waist and leaned tighter. "It was a good dream too."

He twisted his fingers into the darkness of her hair, "About?"

She smirked wider into the warmth of his shirt, intentionally downing her face away from meeting his questioning. "My first favorite part of you."

"Which is?"

Her grin wiped wider on his shirt, eyes shut into the scent of him, "None of your business, Scotty."


	13. Chapter 13

"I told you not to." She demanded tightly into the shift of his hips away from hers, the curve of her palm bracing his opposite shoulder as she lifted her face into his cheek, letting her nose rub his jaw.

"Not to what?" he angled slowly toward her instead of shifting off the mattress as he'd aimed to do, jerking her hips closer into the way he pressed them flush. "Givin' me orders, Lieutenant?"

"You really think I don't know when you leave this bed?" she sharpened the whisper between them, letting her head shade back and forth against the pillow. "Trust me, I know."

He tucked his hand up under her shirt, fingers digging down to circle against the scar that she wore like just another badge. "I have to go, Ally. Too few hours in today. Got the Irish on my schedule and Christ knows how long that mess is gonna last me."

Her eyes flicked darker as she skidded her tongue along her lips, "Connor?"

Chibs gave her a knowing shake of the head on a dry smile, "We're not doin' this."

The supposedly innocent shrugging she let up matched the way she stretched her upper body higher into him as she slung her hips back, grazing along his forearm even as his fingers kept tracing the circular scar. Ally let her eyes slide closed into the way she knew he was watching her, smirking into the stillness he kept even as he downed his mouth along her throat in a surrender that she'd known was coming. Her smile flicked wider, fingers curling his forearm to pull him broader over the stretch of her.

"I have t'go." He kissed against her jaw as he stretched over her, palm shunting a light and playful slap against her thigh as he crossed over the length of her to edge off the other side of the mattress. "I gotta check on my boys first thing."

Humor caught up his lips as she huffed off a pouted noise in his direction, her eyes rounding on him as she dragged her hand under her head and let the other palm flat to her stomach. Chibs blinked into the way she watched him in a studying silence, his head tipping slightly as he turned his fingers out against the thin skin along her temple. He lagged an exhale into the touch, letting himself swipe slowly into her hair as he squinted silently into the movement.

"And that's why you like to leave before I wake up." She smirked at him with a look of supposed teasing but her eyes were darker than he expected.

"Wasn't supposed to let you too close, Althea." He tipped his head farther into an angle as he studied the long lines of her face. "Keep finding you awfully damn near though."

"A lot of things in your life lately weren't supposed to happen, Filip." Even the way she tried to weigh the words into an understanding gentleness caught a jolt into his shoulders, his face giving way to a sharded hurt and a warning of sorts, "I like to think I'm one of the better ones."

"Aye, y'would." He tugged against a sway of dark hair. "You seem to think very highly of yourself."

He didn't stop himself from watching the turn of her hips as she curved toward him, her jaw lifting into the way he traced his fingers off her. "Am I wrong, Scotty?"

Chibs gave her a disparaging glance, sucking oxygen into his lungs before he ducked his head down into its angling, breaking over her on the mattress to lay a softened kiss against the ride of her cheekbone. "Shut up, Althea."

"Yes, sir." She teased back into a smile, curling her arm under her head as she watched him reach for his boots and cut, a relaxation to his shoulders that had been lacking hours before.

She was surprised by his stalling in the doorway of her bathroom, her head perked into the way he turned a thoughtful glance back, a biting in his jaw before he looked at her, "Wanna come with? Check in on the boys?"

Ally smiled into the lift of her head, "You mean the small ones, right? Not the fully grown children you ride around with?"

"I'm bein' kind and you're gonna get chippy with me?" he snorted as he dropped the boots to the floor once again, drawing leather onto his back, "Now y'can drive yourself."

"You never mentioned the bike." She was already tipping off the edge of the mattress and rising into his back, palms smoothing leather, "That's unfair."

"Criminally so, I'd suspect. Have we met, darlin'?" He grinned into the way she slapped against him before stepping around him into the bathroom. "Hurry up, Lieutenant. Boys are up already."

* * *

><p>Wendy's eyes went down the front of her with no attempt to shade her surprise at the low slung jeans and boots, "No uniform today?"<p>

"Late hours today." She murmured, her hands lifting an appreciative acceptance into the strong smelling coffee the other woman handed her. "I swing shift my schedule most of the time. Keeps me available to everyone. Makes me more approachable."

"Approachable? You?" The cocked glance the blonde gave her was silently disbelieving.

"In theory." Ally shrugged into a smirking, sipping at her coffee as she caught up the childish laughter that pitched up from down the hall. "How'd they do yesterday?"

The other woman shrugged into a pursed glance, her face a pass of confused frustration as she poured her own cup of coffee, "Tomorrow's gonna be worse."

"On all of you, I'm sure." She offered up gently, trying to cut her tone soft and generous in some sort of empathy.

The shaky shifting of Wendy's hand as she settled the carafe back preceded the way she cocked her head, not lifting her glance but leading her jaw in Ally's direction. "It doesn't feel like he's really gone yet. I can still smell him in the house. He still has half a bottle of shampoo in the shower."

"Wendy - "

"It wasn't an accident."

Ally shook her head slowly, the cup caged into her sternum as she exhaled, "No. I've got a stack of officer accounts. It was no accident."

"Did Chibs tell you why?" there was a leaning of desperation in the younger woman's dark eyes.

"We don't discuss it, Wendy. No club business, no cop business." She offered into a complete rush of honesty. "I'm sorry."

"And Gemma? Did he - "

"Don't." Ally murmured into a saddened warning, shaking her head between them, "Just leave it. Just let it go."

"I need to know." Wendy shot back tightly, frustration and sorrow snapping into an anger that needed venting.

"But those boys don't." she tightened quickly back between them, catching the tripping of a warmly accented tone nearing closer toward them from the hall. "And someday you're not gonna be able to hide it from them. Just let it go."

* * *

><p>Watching them with children was such a slanted and cracked mirror to what she knew they were capable of – it was the sharply upshot reverse of everything dark that breathed alive in each of them. And she felt an irrepressible pull to that side of them as both men teased the boys that they obviously cared so much about, Telford's hands so much gentler than they were any other hour of the day as he leaned toward her with Thomas cradled into the center of his chest.<p>

"Got soft eyes, Lieutenant." He winked at her as he pressed a hand past her to reach for the coffee she'd forgotten, lifting to swallow against it. "You lettin' that ice melt?"

"For you?" she sharpened her shoulders up into the way he was hip cocked toward her, shaking her head slowly. "No."

Chibs gave her a knowing grin past the defensive posturing, watching the way she turned a glance over his shoulder and nodded to where Quinn was lifting Abel a foot from the floor boards and swinging with sure hands against small wrists. "For him, maybe."

He angled her a disparaging glance as he handed the coffee back up into her chest, rubbing a sidelong kiss into the boy's blonde head. "That was plain cold hearted, Althea."

The grin she turned back into him was sure with teasing as her eyes thinned, jaw lifting into the blink of long lashes against her cheeks, "Criminal even."

He snorted a chuckle into the way he turned back toward the table, hands shifting under the boy's arms as he turned him, angling him down into the high chair regardless of the child's fussing. His lips crowned against the boy's head, a hand gracing the small chest to soothe him before turning his shoulders back up, fingers rubbing off the fabric of the small shirt before he shifted back toward her.

"I'm goin'. You staying?" his jaw jutted up toward her.

"Until she's outta the shower, yeah." She agreed into the leaning of his hips along hers, jaw lifting into the way he clipped his hand back up to catch the cup and turn it back to the counter.

"I'm leavin' Quinn." He softened over the stretch of her. "Be nice."

"I'm always nice." She countered on a playful shrug that led his jaw higher in a cocked disbelief. "To him, anyhow."

"I know." He caught a quick kiss off her, swallowing the surprised moaning she made in her throat at the movement. "That's why it's him."

She thinned a look at him even past the warmth of his kiss. "I don't need your boys. I've got a squad of my own."

"He's not here for you." He leveled the tightness over her even as he gentled his palms curving along her waist. "But I don't need you snipin' at the others. So play nice with the one y'like, hear me?"

She shifted her head and shoulders into a jaunt of blasé acceptance. "Fine."

"Fine." He nodded a quick agreement, letting his thumbs rub the fabric of her shirt, a leaning to him that said he wasn't ready to pull apart from her yet. "You're a right pain in my ass, Ally."

"Then why'd you invite me?" she smirked into a sleek taunting.

He shook his head slowly into a smile, "I like ya. Gotta go, darlin'."

"So go." Her shoulders lifted again.

He squinted over her before tugging at her shirt, fingers impatient in their pulling, "Althea."

"What?" Her humor lingered into the way he was drawing her closer. "I promise to be good, President. No trouble."

"You're a wealth of trouble." He answered into his leaning. "Whatcha doin' later?"

"Quinn, possibly." She nodded a full smile into the slacked tensing of his jaw, catching the rolled and jaded glance the blonde gave her from across the room. "That's okay, right?"

"Ally." He dug her into his hips, the twitch of his amusement curtailed by the sudden jerking jealousy that ridged his muscles up against hers. "Watch y'self."

"Outlaw code." Her head angled into the way he was curling her into his chest, forceful hands prying her up along the solid run of him. "That's, like, sharing liquor and women and ammunition, right?"

"Y'done yet?" he cocked his mouth along the edge of hers. "Because you're leanin' toward offensive, Sheriff"

"Sorry." She leaned a swinging smile into the kiss she dragged against him, sinking into the domineering curl of him around her, the weight of his hands on her falling somewhere between the softness he'd had for a child and the digging possession he'd started stroking over her more and more often.

The half smirking he had on his face as he pulled from her stroked the strength of her shoulders back, her hand reaching for mostly cooled coffee again as he kissed goodbyes against children and caught against the way Quinn clasped their palms together in a warmth of loyal and silent understanding. She watched the quick lifted glance he shot her before leaving the kitchen, her eyes turning back down over the way the other man was slowly feeding dry Cheerios into the younger boy's reaching hand with a quirked shake of his head. Abel was pulled away from him, running his trucks under the table and up the opposite chair.

Ally rubbed the cup against her bottom lip on amusement. "What?"

"He's on an edge." Quinn murmured softly, his head angling into a swath of concern.

"I know that." She nodded slowly, composure straightening on the curving she'd leaned into the other man. "I'm doing what I can, Quinn. I'm doing what he'll let me do."

"Yesterday spun him out." He caged a forced smile into accepting the truck that Abel was handing up to him. "Tomorrow - "

"I know." She interrupted quietly, brooking the subject silent and smiling into the way Abel was already heading toward her with his other truck, accepting it with a softened tone, "Thank you."

* * *

><p>"Y'need to call your wife." Connor's voice was a swift accusation across the table, his hand swaying over the spread of drinks that spaced between him and them. "One of y'needs to just bite that bloody goddamn bullet before I - "<p>

"Ex-wife." Chibs hissed into his palm curling the glass before him, considering lifting it before shifting it farther from his edge of the table and cocking a glance up over Malone as he let his shoulder lean back. "And I wish you'd quit bringin' her up."

Connor flicked him a pinned down glance of twisted amusement. "Get you in a little trouble the last time, yeah?"

"I'd shut it." Tig's arm was leaned up and back against the booth, his face a paled sheer of supposed calm even as he angled tighter sideways.

"Beddin' down with a badge seems to be gettin' ya some perks, huh?" Malone ticked his fingers against the table. "That why you boys aren't seein' the inside of a cell meant for Teller?"

A rise of rage was nothing new in the face of a tilting accent and a flippancy that seemed all too familiar to home. But the way it wired from his jaw to the flat thwack of his palm breaking against the table as he lifted from the seat was an unexpected snapping that he didn't realize he had in him. At least not when it came to a tipping taunt in regards to her. He'd taken the teasing from his brothers, letting the chiding ride off him, but this was too sharp an aiming from an unfriendly end.

"Chibs." Tig's palm scruffed tightly into his shirt was what had him realizing that his own hand had already caught up along Malone's jaw and pried his head jerked up. "Easy, brother. Not worth it."

He shoved petulantly into the release of his anger ached hand, noticing how tightly Malone's boys had leaned into the situation along with the realization that Happy was suddenly brooked into the center of the table and leaning a legitimately silent and terrorizing darkness toward the Irishman. He sank back into the seat, exhaling into the way Tig straightened in the booth and stroked the glasses slowly from between the two men with a slowly shifting hand.

"How about you boys try having a discussion about anything but pussy, huh?" Trager's voice was slaking intentionally calming between them. "Before you blow the shit outta international relations."

"Didn't realize it was that sensitive a situation." Malone smirked into the way his palm brushed down his shirt, shoulders slacking back into the booth. "Maybe mentioning Teller was a mistake. My apologies."

Chibs kept a stable ebb and flow of air pulsing through his lungs, letting his exhalations through his nose as he flexed his jaw into a dip of his head. "Say what you thought was so damn important to say t'me so that I can leave, huh?"

"I've spoken to the Kings." Connor acquiesced softly, his head dipping lower into his leaned shifting. "They're sendin' a man over to discuss negotiations 'tween the two of us. I'd appreciate it if y'were there."

"I don't need t'babysit your business, Con." Chibs let a breathy laugh of derision off his lips as he shook his head, "We left it to you. It's yours."

"You left it on me." Connor sharpened back, "Not to me. Y'laid the death of Kings on my shoulders and walked away, Filip. The Scot I knew - "

"The Scot you knew is damn tired of buryin' family." He threaded dankly over the table on a braced leaning, "Speakin' of, will I be seein' you tomorrow? Or would that offend the sensibilities of your sweet Kings?"

Malone blinked at him on a slow and quieted pausing, "We'll be there."

Chibs swallowed slowly into the slow shake of his head, "I'll take the meet, but that's all. And it's not for you, Connor. It's to keep a peace. Keep Sambel and my girls in their graces."

"You'll have to bend a bit, Telford." Malone murmured slowly. "That's why Fi's been callin'. To try and get me to convince you to just calm things."

"I'm calm." Chibs lifted him a near on menacing grin, the smirk curling his lips up so that dimples dug into the scars, "What makes y'think otherwise?"

Connor just gave him a quick snort, blinking between Happy and Tig before looking back over the Scot with a searching glance. "Can't imagine."

"I'd stop spinnin' secrets with Fiona were I you." Filip tipped over the table as he stood, letting his fingertips brush off it as Happy shifted space for him. "She'll get y'down in the ground before I ever could."

"Y'loved that woman once, Filip." Malone shot after him, his voice quietly gentled.

Chibs nodded slowly, "Don't not love her now. Do in a way. Doesn't mean I don't know what she's capable of, Con. Especially when it comes to our daughter. Hear me?"

"I do." Malone murmured on a nod. "Like a bell."

"And your mouth keeps runnin' on about the other again - you put her in danger?" he shook his glance away on a slow step toward the door, "I'll bury you myself."


	14. Chapter 14

"Got a visitor, LT." Carreira's chirped interruption drew her attention up from the paperwork she been bent into, signing off on reports from the day before.

"Yeah?" she asked as she flicked another few pages back, dropping her glance from the way he was leaned toward her in the bullpen. "What sort?"

"Leathered." There was a tweak of humor in his tone. "Foreign. Angry."

Her eyes lifted slowly but her back was still swayed forward, the pen twitching in her fingers as she gave up a disparaging glance into his amusement, "How angry?"

He shrugged up slowly, "Like I know how angry his angry is, Lieutenant. I'm Brazilian. I don't speak pissed off Scotsman."

"Thank you." She slapped sarcasm in his direction as she stretched into standing, her face openly passive as she lifted a palm.

"Left him in the conference room." He tossed up as she moved past him, "Need back up?"

"If I do, I'm sure you'll hear it." She assured him on a swung back turn of her hand, aiming her voice lower. "Keep the room clear, huh?"

The deputy just gave her a cocked smirk, biting down on a swing of amusement, "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

><p>"What happened?" her weight pressed back into the closing of the door, her hand still against the handle as she searched down the livid length of his tautened up frame, one gloved hand tented against the edge of the table he was standing behind.<p>

"Y'know why I left Belfast?" he cocked a hazy tone of mixed up anger and weariness over the table, tracing his finger against the faux wood.

Ally lifted a shoulder cautiously, "Only partially."

"Because it's too full with the Irish." He whispered as his glance guttered away from her, jaw riding to the side on a slinging frustration.

"You're part Irish, Telford." She smirked into the slow annoyance that he sighed off his lungs as he shook a half smile back toward her.

"Explains the temper, yeah?" he blinked into the admittance.

Her smile tipped wider toward teasing, "And the alcoholism. So?"

"Y'couldn't find a better cliché than that?" Chibs bandied between them. "I'm disappointed, Althea."

"Well, I wasn't expecting you. Next time I'll have a list prepared."

Her eyes followed the slow shifting of his steps, watching the slide of leather laden fingertips along the table edge as he rounded toward her. The turning hush of leather as his hand broke off the surface of the table and stretched into her stomach was the only sound that leveled between them as he squinted a glance along the windows and cocked his hip to the opposite side of her to angle away from them.

"Filip." She shot a warning glance to the side with a tip of her jaw. "What are you doing?"

The crushing softness of his eyes was a surprise that jarred with the terse and tense shifting of his body as he angled beside her, fingers caught up against her gun belt as he angled his head a little nearer. His tongue skated his bottom lip before he bit down against it and his fingers pressed forward, leaning her farther into the door before he stretched slightly back and let his upper arm break into the wall. Chibs gave in a slow shrug as he drew his glance back up the length of her in a slow and sleek fashion that had her lungs drawing up in breathing.

"Stop it." She murmured into the way he was watching her lips. "You're gonna screw me."

"Christ, I hope so." He taunted his voice lower, palm laying flat into her stomach as he flushed her back hard against the door. "How come you can rub your scent all over me in front of the club but I can't piss on a hydrant this close to home?"

"Because there's a considerable stretch between the ranks of President and Lieutenant. Don't be a jackass." She cut dryly to the side, jaw lifting into how close he was leaning into her shoulder. "What happened that has you this contrary?"

He grazed a searching glance over her, "The realization that you've become an unexpendable variable in a situation I can't control the outcome of, mostly."

"Oh," she nodded a flushed smile up into the way she tried to brush off the muddled admittance. "that's all, huh?"

"Irish are comin' stateside." He murmured softly as he let his hand drop from the flat run of her stomach. "Get used to seein' Quinn."

"Filip - "

"Connor knows. And he's makin' a point of makin' it known." He sharpened with a lift of his hand in her direction, aiming the authority with leather and intentional intimidation. "Which means Fiona knows. Which means - "

"Your wife is not - "

"Get past it, love." He shunted a step forward into her space. "The Kings will use any means they can grab onto if I can't make this work. They steal children from fathers and sell them off without blinking. Fi bein' who she is keeps Kerrianne in a sort of safehold right now. You're not so damn lucky, Lieutenant. Understood?"

"You really cut them off, didn't you?" there was a fully fledged wondering of surprise in her voice, eyes brightening a little in a mix of concern and pride. "If they're so pissed that you're classifying who's a target and who isn't - "

"I told you." He tightened over her in a crackled fervor. "This is the good of Jackson's end, Althea. This is the balance. Didn't I promise you?"

"You promised me no more bodies." She shifted just as tightly into his space as he was in hers, ignoring the gritty way road dusted bloomed the leather scent of him warmer. "And then Teller left me a blood trail in two states."

"And not a whimper since." He ground over her, his palm slacking hard into the wall beside her, "Not a sound, Ally. This is why I asked you t'wait."

She gave up a slowed sigh as she sank back against the door, shoulders laxing into it on a shrugging, "So I just have to accept your word for everything? You're still a criminal, I'm still a cop."

"Also still happen t'be the man you've got wrapped up between your legs in the middle of the night, Sheriff." He crowned over her in a wired whisper that edged on her skin and made her flush along the throat. "The one takin' the slaps. Makin' you moan and killin' the bad dreams, huh? I think I've earned some fucking patience."

"Okay." She nodded a quieted agreement into his emotionally tipped leaning, eyes following the rise of his chest in jacked breathing. "You can have a new key, Telford. You didn't have to get so Goodfellas about it."

The quirked glance of impatience he gave her just barely faltered toward humor and as soon as it did she grinned into a warm depth of amusement.

"Don't like not being able to kiss the sass off ya." He pressed slowly away from her, rolling his shoulders onto the wall as he laid a glittered glance over her.

She felt the smile start in her eyes and land along her lips, "Hey, I get to spring Eglee from the hospital tomorrow."

"Yeah?" he smiled sadly into nodding, "Good. She's a good girl. You tell her we miss seein' her around."

She nodded as her hand shifted back, caging against the door handle again. "You want that key? It's in my office."

"Really?" he smirked easily into a flooding humor, head dipping forward from the way he was still pressed back to the wall. "Just like that?"

"Well," she shrugged as she jerked the door open, "try to kill me and I'll shoot your dick off. Deal?"

Chibs rolled his eyes into a snort, "You're pure class, darlin'."

* * *

><p>It wasn't that he wasn't listening, because the back up level of his brain was categorically picking up each word and filing it somewhere pertinent. It was that regardless of their discussion round the table, not one of them was pinning down on the subject every damn one of them was actually thinking about. And hashing up over the Irish had sickened his humor, and business talk of their multiple businesses had mulled him toward apathetic. And he was surprisingly focused on the calm and subtle half curl of his Vice President's palm, settled upward from the wood of the table. Tig's hand was loosely resting to his left, unmoving and calm and normal in its rings and braced up wrist. And when the conversation bent quiet he could feel the sudden weight of awkward expectation level toward the two of them, and he saw the reaction of it in the nervous curl of the other man's fingers inward to a fist.<p>

Chibs laid his palm over the tensing stretch of the other man's wrist, exhaling into a sort of ached acceptance of responsibility. "I don't care where you boys go t'night. I don't give a shit where you land. And I don't rightly care how twisted you're feelin' right now because all of us are still banged up. I want my brothers strong tomorrow, yeah? We have business to finish so get right."

When he lifted his eyes to the table he found an accordance of some silented agreement from all of them – terrifyingly and steadfast true in its loyalty, regardless of any of the trite little shit that may have been spitting between this one and that. Regardless of how they may have felt about him or Jax or any of the mess. They were still watching him with a tight eyed acceptance of what he was about to say, sure of the words even if he was a little shaky on letting them go. And that broke him a little toward digging his fingers on Tig's wrist.

"I want you all clean, clear, and ready to ride. No excuses. On time and tuned up." Chibs inhaled slowly, catching the dipping nod Tig made at his side. "Yeah?"

The slinging murmurs of agreement that ranged across the table shored up the jittering in his lungs as he nodded, keeping his hand still tightly gripping on Trager's. "Go on, then."

He waited while they made their shiftings to leave, his eyes on Tig's and a shift of his head stilling the other man while they left. His hand shifted into the way the other man's fist had slowly loosened, curling their palms together in a quick grasping before he rocked Trager's hand against the table and loosened it. Chibs let his hand lift into wiping along his jaw as the last of the other men slipped from the room, and he smiled a little surprised pride into the realization that it was Rat giving them a nod as he hushed the door quietly closed.

"What's up?" Tig's head tipped on a wariness that tweaked his eyes the sparkled color of glassy water.

"Sorry." Chibs gave him the breathy apology as he shunted his shoulders back. "About yesterday. Shoulda stayed for you, Tiggy. You been keepin' close and I shoulda returned the favor."

Trager gave him a sideways shrug, his eyes quickly veering for the center of the table and latching unfocused and away. A tip of his lean jaw showed a slight swing of hurt but it slacked off quickly as he forced a sheer composure over his features and shrugged again. As thought he couldn't line up the words he knew he had somewhere in his head. He thought maybe it was a problem the two of them had been tossing back and forth since patches had gone switching hands.

"Can't get right with him killing her, Chibs." Tig's face slacked suddenly paled and sallow at once. "I'm not… Tomorrow's, ya know, whatever. I can do it. I just can't meet the ends up. I don't care what she did. Can't see it worth putting a bullet in her head. That's my twist up, ya know?"

The slick way gray determination stroked over the other man's eyes was a warning between the two of them that Chibs heeded a nodding into.

"Aye, I know."

A sudden flicked worry crossed his Vice President's face and they caught glances again, "Not sayin' I didn't love him, Chibby. Or Tara. And I love those boys."

"I know." Chibs nodded as he tipped his fingers against the other man's arm and tugged against his shirt sleeve. "You always had somethin' with Gem the rest of us couldn't understand."

Trager snorted into a flinching glance of bittersweet amusement, "Yeah, and you always had something with Jax the rest of us couldn't touch."

"I am sorry, brother." He lifted his palm up to catch along the other man's jaw, nodding into the way Tig's head dropped low into the touch. "And I do see ya fightin' for us. You're handlin' that patch better than I'm handling mine."

"Naw." Trager snorted as he lifted his head away and rubbed the heel of his palm against his brow. "We're all still twisting."

The Scot gave him a look of threaded up weariness, "Think you and I need a fall down drunk, Tiggy. Not tonight, though."

Tig shook his head as he pressed back into the chair, "Not tonight."

"Let's go home. Ride together til the road splits, huh?"

Trager gave him a grin as he pressed up from the table on tired muscles, "Doesn't freak you out those two only live six miles from each other?"

"Nope." Chibs followed into shifting his chair back from the table. "Means you're close enough to maybe stop the blood flow on the day she actually shoots me."

* * *

><p>"Don't get too used to it." He aimed at her from the perch he had on her counter, boots lagging loosely down the front of her lower cupboards. "I was hungry."<p>

Ally lifted a shrug into the rise of her nod, prying open the buckle of her gun belt as the smell of oiled food teased at her, "Understood. I shouldn't expect to be spoiled by crap Mexican food all the time. Got it."

"Not just crap." He lifted the half eaten and foil trapped burrito between them, a smirk edging the corners of his lips. "Happens t'be the best crap Mexican food this side of the Morada line. Gonna bitch then we can ride down to TJ."

"You wanna take an all night ride to Mexico, Telford? I'm in." she nodded lidded eyes into the way she leaned up into his higher frame, then tipping her head away from the way he bit down another swallow in teasing, "But I'm not eating that."

"There's a healthy version in there somewhere." He shrugged off into the way she slung the belt off in turning, slaking it along the back of a kitchen chair before drawing the Glock from it's holster and laying it flat to the table. "Freakish woman."

He finally smiled true when she banked a quick and victorious smirking back at him before letting her hands into the bag, rifling through what was left before lifting the less greasy and more vegetable laden version of the food he had in his hand. Chibs watched her steps shift, a frowning tipping his features as she started to move from the room, food in one hand and the Glock clipped back up in the other.

"Oi." He lifted the last few bites, "I make you dinner and y'ditch me?"

The cocked angle of her hips as she turned, palms full and head tilted tiredly, it had him letting his eyes ride the length of her in a sure warmth, taking in the straight backed tightness the uniform kept over her.

"I wanna change." she cast in his direction quietly. "You're a big boy, Scotty. Entertain yourself."

Chibs just grinned into the way she turned her shoulder back on him again, lifting the last of his food into the slowly affectionate shake of his head.


	15. Chapter 15

"Cabin's closer than Tijuana, darlin'."

A smiled lazed along her lips as he shifted his hips under her on the couch, the brace of his arm caging along her side as he banked straighter onto the cushions and curled her lower between his legs. Ally broke her head back into him again, letting his other palm cage against the top of her head as she intentionally stretched her weight into his grunted reaction. A laugh braced off her lips when both his hands caught her still from pressing any farther back into his groin and he broke a hissed noise along the side of her head.

"Don't know why you feel the need to go anywhere." She turned her head into pressing along his jaw, eyes dipped shut into the way he'd dug his fingers into her hair to keep her from shifting. "I'm comfortable."

"Sittin' still." He shook his head minutely into the side of hers. "Seems like sittin' wide open."

"You're fine." Her palm lifted blindly into the stubble on him, "And it's late. And I think that's not really your problem. I think tomorrow is your problem."

"Think you're right." He agreed with a hushing as his fingers grasped along her forearm, drawing her arm intentionally crossed over her chest and locking it there as he rubbed his lips into her hair. "Think I don't wanna talk about it, Ally."

"Filip - "

"Althea." His other hand caged her other arm up around her chest slowly and with a sure shifting of movement both his arms braced up over hers. "Don't. I know y've been soft on me the last few days. Gimme one more day, huh?"

"I like the fight in you too, ya know?" She let her palms curl closed into the way he was dragging her tighter into the center of his chest as she murmured earlier words back to him, his fists locking her up into a braced hold.

Filip tipped a saddened smile into the warm breadth of her hair, nose buried into the sweet smell of her, "Aye, and that's why Quinn's much too soft for ya."

She grinned her jaw down amusedly into the way he was sitting her up, the stretching of his spine driving them both upward as he let his palms curl her loose wrists. He pulled her hands slightly upward, driving his mouth along the stretch of her neck and to the strap of her tank. The smile widened into a breathy sound of humor she felt him grunt annoyance into her skin before nudging the fabric aside with his nose, teeth scraping along her skin and grazing it a roughened red.

"So jealous." Ally whispered into the turning of her head against his, a flick of pressure skating on her as he sucked hard against the same pass of skin. "You can't stand not getting everything you want, can you?"

"What's the point of wantin' if you're never gettin', love?" He let the whisper rise up behind the curve of her ear. "Seems awfully silly."

"Your logic astounds me." She groaned into the skip of his teeth on her ear, shifting her hands unconsciously until she realized he still had them locked up in prizing palms that kept them crossed and up. "You're still jealous."

He felt a twitch ride through the muscles of her arms as she tightened up against him, her fingers clenching closed as he sighed off along her hair, "If I wanted to pass a beautiful woman around I'd be at pantless in my boots with a Croweater bent over the pool table, Althea."

She shot her head to the side as he skimmed his fingers along her forearms, loosening his hold and dropping back against the end of the couch as her voice went arch, "And that's how the town of Charming got its name."

"Or I could be pickin' off the menu at Diosa. Been here instead, yeah?" His knee nudged against her side, head lolling back along the arm of the couch as he wiped over his face. "Gettin' my balls broken."

"You think Quinn's too soft for me?" she questioned into a turning smile of hazeled knowing, letting her tone sway toward taunting again as she stretched a rolling through her shoulders and flexed her wrists.

Chibs grinned into the way his eyes dipped shut, "You'd eat that boy alive, my love."

* * *

><p>He'd kept too long in her shower but the sharpening heat of the water had pinned and needled the knotting in the back of his neck looser and it had been more than worth the lingering. Fact that he could smell her mixed in water everywhere was another rounding ease that had drawn the tension out of his forearms, loosened up the run of each wrist into stretched fingers. And leaning flat palmed into the wall with a dousing of hot water along the bent run of his back had been something of what he'd needed. And maybe finding her already asleep across the center of the bed had been another something needed – because it laid off the rest of the ache that had been renting up space between skin and bones.<p>

Chibs felt the smile rise up his lips even as he scrubbed the towel over heat flushed skin, eyes riding the cocked angle of her hips with a drawn up knee and the stretch of her torso flat to the bed. Her spine curved the flare of her in such a slanting angle that he couldn't help a groaning glance over the way her panties sat damn deliciously low along her hips. Especially when the white of her tank had ridden up in her sleep shifting. For awhile he was fine with the staring.

At least until he swept a glance over the way her hair had tossed over her face and just the half-hazard splash of it rigged another wariness into the space between his shoulder blades. The length of her suddenly too still and shiftless and the position of her too near what could have been had he not thrown her roughly out along a tiled floor when the world had exploded around them. It didn't matter that the soft curling darkness of her hair wasn't the ruddy bright of blood. And it didn't matter that the lax of her hips was so much smoother than how jittered they'd been when he'd tucked her beneath the spread of himself and she'd backed her ass reflexively into his groin as she'd let him shield against the battering world.

Because either way she was something he wanted to curl and cradle over, just to claim and crave and protect. And he was tipping lies to the both of them if he didn't admit that he'd been wanting to continue doing so since the world shot up and sharded around them, letting him feel how tightly toned and vitally nerved up she was even while the Reaper was bracing her flat. So damn riveted alive in the rushed up exhalation of an explosion that could have racked her more than temporarily flat but had only managed to rile a fantastic fury on her.

Ridiculous as he felt at the flushing of his skin, he let the towel land half along the edge of the bed as he slid the stretch of his hips up along the slant of hers. His free hand caught up against her arm, curling it down as her shoulders shot tight under his chest, a hushing raking off his lips and lungs as he crowded the pass of his chest against her back. He left the sounds soothing into the back of her head, echoing them into her hair as he caught the sighing of her lungs laying slowly flat beneath him – so much smoother than her breathing had been in rattling that day at Scoops.

"Still, love." He hushed over her, even himself unsure if it was a demand against her movement or an agreement of his thoughts. "We've been here before."

The sleepy moaning she drew against the pillow as she arched her hips back into his had him loosening his hold on her arm, his face wiping down her back as she lifted long fingers into her hair, dragging it up and off her face as she laxed beneath him. He let his hand slide up the back of her updrawn thigh, enjoying the flinching and tensing of muscles under his touch.

"It's not jealousy." He leaned his face into the curve between her neck and shoulder, gripping into her thigh so that he could lean between her legs, balancing weight in the way he bore down against her. "It's an owning, Althea. On both of us."

"And a little jealousy." She teased against the pillow, curling her shoulders back into his chest as he traced the bottom hem of her underwear and laid his mouth open against the back of her neck. "Christ, Filip."

His teeth nicked her skin as he jerked her hips up into his, the force of the movements a stoked up and heated warning against her as he dragged his tongue against razed skin, "Not sharin' what's mine, darlin'."

"Yours, huh?" She laid the words silkenly leading along the pillow and she felt him wipe his face along the fabric of her shirt, the sweat burned heat of him blanching through fabric.

"Aye. Mine."

The sure quick jut of his so simply-completely assured response was the only bracing she had before he pried against her underwear and she let him drive the movement forward, forehead dropped into the way his mouth laid back along the nape of her neck. The groan he dragged up her hairline layered heat onto her scalp the same time his fingers wiped into wet heat, driving them into her as he lifted his jaw against the back of her head and nudged against her.

"Y'can't fight me all hours of the day, Ally." His kissing was quiet but raked nervy along her ear and she turned her head sharply into his teasing, biting against giving him the kissing he wanted as he twisted his fingers deeper. "Y'won't win at the end of this."

"Filip - "

"Y'made a bed with a criminal in it, Althea." His lips led along her jaw, a moan leading into the flagged shutting of her eyes as he turned his fingers roughly against her clit, forcing her tighter back into him with sure strong hands, "Don't know why you thought I wouldn't steal you back to me."

She slanted her mouth quickly into his at the accusation, knowing as he roughened the touches farther that he was beyond correct in every assertion he'd made. And she didn't necessarily want to disagree with a single one of them as she allowed him his forcing and fervor and the clash of his tongue swiping her teeth. If possession was nine-tenths of the law, a rule of force, then simple custody implied ownership - presumed control. He had her in his roving hands and strong curled arms and the searching of his mouth - and she very suddenly had him inside her. And the bracing of his body had been the staking of his claim since the first moment she'd consciously known that they'd end up tangled right exactly where they were, over and over again.

* * *

><p>She pulled the stretch of his hand slowly up from the way he'd let it lax curled beside her hip, her other palm flat stroking the bunched up curving of his shoulder. The lazy lifting of his head from the spread of her stomach panned the obviously darkness of his eyes up in her direction, the shading of brown tipped more toward a silent maudlin than any sort of anger. When her thumb dug along the run of his knuckles he let his head drop back against her, cheek flat and stubble roughing on the spread of her abdomen.<p>

"You should wear your rings today." Her lips rubbed along the calloused ridging of his palm, knowing the map of hardened skin that came from palming a grip handle too often.

He shushed against her with a sharpened noise, disagreeing with her disturbance of their silence as he closed his palm down along her throat, thumb rubbing her jaw as his fingers curled the opposite side. She lifted her head into the palming, waiting warily until she realized he was curving his hand in softness rather than a rush of control. Ally exhaled as she graced slow fingertips up and down the run of his forearm, turning her head into the curving of his palm as she listened to the hushed run of his breathing.

"Filip, you - "

"Don't." The gruff rush of his damply warm breath against her skin had her stomach tensing even against the soft brush of his fingers along her lips.

"Damn it, Filip." Her hand caught against him, digging his fingers still as his head lifted back into a sharpness and a twisting of a glare. "Listen."

"What?" his shoulders lifted into a supposedly lackadaisical shifting even as a biting impatience toned off his lips, the darkness of his eyes shifting closer to annoyance at her defiance.

Ally drew in a slow breath through her nose, fingers wiping a line over one of his eyebrows regardless of the tensing in his jaw. "You don't break, Scotty."

He flinched into the words she so quietly let over him, head cocking into a questioning of her meaning. There was a wariness warring with the warning he silently blinked at her. Unsure of whether she was making an admittance or an order he just watched the sturdy assurance that kept her face passive.

"Not today. Today you're unbreakable." She shook her head softly at him before she let it drop back into the pillow, leading him back into a softness of weighty silence with her fingers curled on his arm.

And she counted the heaved moments before he dragged the rush of his beard back against her stomach, kissing softly against her skin in a sort of quietly made agreement as his hand flexed back along her throat.

* * *

><p>"He left an hour ago." She offered softly into the roar of echoing quiet that came in at the cut of his bike's engine, the surrounding morning's quietness seemingly sudden.<p>

Tig frowned as he jerked the strap on his helmet, dropping it off his head and into his lap with a slapping shift of his palm. "He already left? Really?"

"Something about adjusting his carburetor before this afternoon." Ally shook of tightly, her arms looped against her torso in a way that had him studying her softness in a surprised confusion. "Is that seriously a thing?"

"Depends on his mood and how loud he wants to be for the ride." Trager shrugged as he lifted a look at the house and then back at her, a sort of sympathy flecking into the blue of his eyes as he tipped her a warmed glance, "Don't look so worried, AJ. He's gonna go deep and dark today. He'll bounce."

The shrugging she made at him seemed to thin her shoulders in the tank she was wearing, her downed dark hair making her eyes less brightened and more coppery brown than usual.

"Nothin's gonna go shady today, trust me. This is locked up tight."

"He worries me." She admitted as she lifted a hand to rake her hair off her face, fingers catching into it and clutching it along the side of her throat as her jaw shook minutely back and forth. "Maybe I'm making it worse."

"Naw, he's comin' back. Trust me. You keeping him even and the Irish kickin' him in the ass?" He sank a slow relaxation into the way he settled evenly on the seat, "Can see it in his eyes. He's ready."

There was finally a tipping of a slight smile tugging her thin lips before she angled closer on a surreptitious squint, "How dangerous is this Irish issue really?"

There was a slight twitch forward to his shoulders before a sliding smile overtook his lips, his body breaking forward to lean against his handle bars, eyes stretching the way she was still cocked awkwardly toward him in her driveway, "A little Irish boy named Jimmy once said 'You can't kill Filip'."

She banked him a slowly sardonic glance, "And?"

"Little Jimmy's dead, Ally." He winked at her quickly, jaw tilting up into the way he palmed his helmet back up into both hands. "And Chibs ain't."

She nodded into the way she tipped slow steps backwards toward the house, arms still wrapped up around herself in a sort of blocking. "Keep him close today, Tig."

"I'll do that for you, AJ. Just for you." His hand lifted with a finger pointed in her direction, a sort of sway in his fingers and shoulders before he shrugged, "And me. More me than you, actually. But you too."

Her nodding was a sure contradiction to her earlier nervous questioning, "I mean it."

"I got him, doll."


	16. Chapter 16

"Hey, Lieutenant." The grayed paleness on the other woman's features only amplified how gauntly thin and drawn she looked, her voice threading low. "You didn't need to do this."

"You kidding?" Ally forced a smile up onto her lips as she leaned into the room shoulders first, her hands tucked into her pockets as she shrugged, "I wouldn't miss this. I'm pretty damn proud of you."

"For getting shot?" Eglee snorted a dismissive noise between them, her hands jittering slightly unsure against the bag she was packing as she shook her head, searching over the small room with a blanked expression. "Wrong place, questionable time."

"Hey." Ally lifted her jaw slowly, stalled up a few steps from the doorway and intentionally drawing the other woman's lighter glance, "Look at me."

The pursed up and nervous shifting of the other officer's eyes made her twitch another smile, nodding slowly as she angled the hem of her shirt up, fingers shying it just about the scar above her pelvis, "It's not easy getting your insides torn up, Candy. I know."

The other woman gave her a slowly questioning glance after blinking over the scar and nodding acceptance into the statement. "Just feel like I missed too much."

Ally dipped her head quietly into a softened step forward, tugging the bag closer to her side of the thin hospital mattress so that she should continue leaning the woman's clothing into it for her. Her shoulders made a pass at shrugging but she exhaled slowly into the way the blonde leaned back in the room, settling her hips carefully into the chair that was angled sidelong to the bed. A paled hand wiped over her face as she shook a glance around the room.

"What the hell happened, Lieutenant?" she whispered her head up into fidgeted questioning. "Wayne? I worked with him for years. And I went to school with Jax. I've literally known him since we were kids."

"Ally." The darker of the two corrected quietly, refusing a look to the other woman. "And I can't tell you much more than Carreira and Raines probably have."

"Bullshit." Eglee slapped sharply between them, her fingers still wiping along her jaw as Ally finally tripped a glance up over her. "That's bullshit. And you know it. And I know you know it."

The brunette exhaled slowly, "We can talk about this in the car."

"I covered your ass just as much as I covered theirs. I think - "

"Covered theirs how?" Ally asked into a sudden riding tension, her shoulders lacing back straight in searching.

"Covered yours more." Eglee sharpened back, looking far beyond affronted as she wiped limp blonde hair from her face. "You still with him?"

Her lungs locked for a few moments, lips parted even though she couldn't manage to pass any oxygen past them. The marks he'd left on her skin suddenly flaring a reminding heated flush on her.

Eglee nodded slowly, her upper body stilted awkwardly in the chair and her face a full pass of grayed understanding, "Figured."

"I still don't know how the hell you figured it out." Ally shifted her head back and forth slowly, finally blowing a breath past her lips as she stuffed the last of the other woman's clothing into the bag.

"You were getting laid, Ally. I knew it was one of them. I took a guess." The other woman sighed off, her body slowly stretching back into the chair against an obvious slacking of aching. "Jax wouldn't have… Not a cop. Lowman and Munson definitely weren't your type. Trager's involved. The others wouldn't have even been on your radar."

"Deductive reasoning?" Ally cocked a dry snort between them.

"Telford's sorta… terrifyingly sexy, I guess." She gave the darker woman a slow smile past the sudden pinch of pain that had her shifting.

"Accent?" the brunette cocked her a half smile.

"And the scars?" Candy shrugged a smirked sigh. "And he's not a complete dick."

"Oh, he can be." Jarry murmured as she jacked the zipper on the bag slowly closed, her head angling over it. "Sometimes."

"See?" Eglee offered quietly, "I missed too much."

* * *

><p>Leaning a faked smiling weight into pride was a better bending of his energy than any other alternative he could think of, his hand curling up against the back of Happy's bald head as he drew the man tighter and leaned them into each other. And because there was an obvious swaying upset in the other man's stalled tears, he could forego his own. Because he could force despondency in the face of the other man's sadness, could lay the falterings of emotions low and bring up a defensive shielding for every one of his boys – because that's what they needed of him. Chibs swallowed, digging the younger man tighter and kissing against his bald head before clasped hands and a stalwart silence spun Lowman back toward the service. He kept his palms into the other man's shoulders for a few moments, pressing fingers tighter into bunched muscles and the biting urge to join into sorrow. He forced his glance aside again, turning it over the crowded and unlikely group of people that surrounded them so quietly.<p>

Black and brown and Irish and locals. Older women and young men and children scattered everywhere. Women too beautiful for long looking and hardened up men that shouldn't be seen as near to sadness as they were. And something in the odd mingling of bodies around him, the lines that laid out into so many lifestyles and so many places, it allowed him a deep breathing of that same pride. Because regardless of the boy's actions he had, at the very least, done something right in the ending. Something that maybe could tip their way in the balance of Karma's long ranging retribution, give them an upswing at the least. At least in the murdering of himself and the very last of his graces, he'd given them back a brotherhood that they'd lost in the last few years.

He realized slowly that his hands had skimmed down the run of Happy's patch and dropped lagging to his sides, his jaw angling down to his boots as his fingers fisted and curled. And no matter how much he tried to swing his head back up he couldn't make the movement, jaw bending tighter toward his shoulder as his teeth ached into how hard he was biting his jaw. And he didn't have the will or the energy to fight Tig's hand as it laid and grasped into the edge of leather at his shoulder, the touch well enough known that he near instantaneously leaned lagging into its sturdy strength.

"M'boys are gone, Tiggy." He dragged the whisper closer to his shoulder, feeling the jerked tugging of the other man's hand in response, inching them closer. "How'd I lose 'em both at once?"

"It's not your fault, Filip." Trager's mouth was breathing warmth against the side of his head and he passively let the words round on him. "It's not."

He didn't at all question the assumption that Trager truly meant the words.

But he'd never been more sure that they disagreed on something so very completely.

* * *

><p>"Jackson." Eglee's voice brushed softly between them, her attention drawn outwards from the car.<p>

She angled her head to the side, jerking the car hard into park as she nodded into the way she let her shoulders ride back in the seat. "Yeah?"

"He wasn't always… he and Opie were just stupid boys." The blonde wasn't making an attempt to leave the parked car, her spine lifted into an intentional and broad shouldered straightening that had her breathing level slow and even. "They did stupid things for stupid reasons. But they always made it through. And Tara always just laughed at them and waved it off like they were - "

"Just stupid boys." Ally supplied softly, her head turning leaned into the headrest as she shut the car off. "Candy - "

"I don't know what changed that made them vulnerable." The blonde finally tipped her a tired look.

"They joined the family business." Jarry murmured into a slight tipping of her head, keeping a sympathetic softness along her lips.

"You think Telford is evil?" the other woman broke tightly between them, her lighter eyes searching between them in a mingling of accusation and legitimate questioning.

"No." Ally hushed off quietly. "But I'm not naïve enough to think he's all that noble, either. None of us are. Not in this town."

"Guess that depends on your definition of the term 'noble'." The blonde responded into a hushed sadness. "The Jackson I knew wasn't evil."

"I don't know why you're so worried about it right now." Ally finally tugged the keys from the ignition, already unclipping her seatbelt. "You should be happy to be home."

"Because I know his service is today." Candy tossed back. "And I feel like I should be there. For what I knew."

"How - "

"Carreira told me at the hospital."

"That's a really bad idea." Ally murmured a widened glance toward the other woman.

"For you, Lieutenant. Not for me." Eglee shook it off quickly as she shifted her head slowly back against the head rest, eyes dipping shut into a wincing. "So just drop me off. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'll find a way back."

"The service is half over." The brunette laid a dragging authority into her tone. "By the time I actually got you there - "

"And you know where they'll be after." Candy tipped her head forward so quickly that the jerk of pain that rigged up her shoulders was palpable to the both of them. "Don't you?"

Ally shook her head as she jammed the keys back into the ignition, "This is a terrible idea and I'm only doing it out of some ridiculous feeling that I owe you for something."

Eglee gave her a tipped half smile of victorious amusement, "That'd be your badge, Lieutenant."

* * *

><p>The smile was inherent – because their joined laughter was a hashed up heat that he could lean his shoulders into, the honesty of it a welcome scorch to his chilled and chapped hands. Chibs listened into the way they were talking, drew in the stories they were telling of Teller and smiled farther. But he couldn't find his own laughter, regardless of how rich and heartwarming their remembrances were. He'd let himself sink too low into a color of grief that was so beyond pale, it was damn near ashen. And the smile was all he could afford them even as he lifted the whiskey bottle and slaked another lining of mossy heat down his throat.<p>

"You're quiet, Prez." Lyla's voice was a cushioning gentleness, same as her hand nudging against his thigh as she leaned her weight sidelong into the way he was angled forward on the raised chair. "No crazy Jax stories to tell?"

"Keep my crazy stories t'myself, sweetheart." He gave her a slowly angled glance, bracing it up with a smile gentle enough to cradle the whispering response as he lifted the bottle between them. "Least til I'm old enough to tell 'em over and again at the retirement home."

"We'd never put you in one of those shitholes, Chibs." She tweaked a smile his way before tipping the bottle to her lips, taking a long swallow down her throat before shaking her head slowly into the burned up taste. "That'd be dangerous. You're the man with all the secrets. That's why you have all the knives. Keeps you sharp. Steady."

"You a little soused already, darlin'?" he asked into a brightened widening of his sweetly sad smile.

Her wide blue eyes tipped over him slowly, their too knowledgeable coolness a sudden bracing too his mood, "I woulda gone anywhere with you, ya know? I loved Ope. After he… you were so sweet. You're safe."

Chibs cocked her a slowly softening glance, his shoulders lifting into a rise of sudden self awareness, "And you're half crocked. I'm not a safe man."

"You're the most dangerous kind of safe man." She countered before taking another strong swallow off the bottle. "The kind that's actually dangerous. But still safe."

"Y'know you're just not makin' clear sense now, yeah?" he reached back for the bottle and pried it from her fingers, a pinked flush of near embarrassment rising up on paled cheeks. "Never woulda touched ya, gorgeous. Couldn't even let myself consider it."

"Because of Ope." She surmised into a quiet understanding.

Chibs gave her a dipped nod before he glanced back out around the crowded studio, letting his eyes catch the familiar blond that Tig was leading toward them. "You were his, dead or alive. Y'weren't for passing around, darlin'. You were loved."

"Where's Jarry?" the questioning she dropped into his side sharpened his glance up tightly, his jaw slackening as she fixed him with a scrutinizing glance after looking down from the way Eglee was moving stiffly in their direction.

"Not her place." He murmured tightly, a tipping tightness riding his voice and the shift of his muscles. "Not this time."

"Why?" she shrugged as she pushed off the side of his chair. "Shouldn't it be? Her place, I mean. That your choice or hers, Filip?"

"It's 'Filip' with everyone today, yeah?" he tossed back after her, intentionally ignoring her implication. "Every one of ya just - "

"Heya." Tig's voice caught into the way he let his words fade off as Lyla cut her palm up between them and moved away, brushing off his taunting. "Look who's here."

"I see." He nodded a slow smile over the way Eglee was angling a gentled glance up at him, her face washed over with concern until his empty hand gentled along her shoulder and tightened against the fabric of her shirt. "Heard you were breakin' out today, Deputy. They take well enough care of you?"

"Well enough." Her lips finally caught into a smile. "You okay with me here?"

Confusion jarred over his features, "Of course, darlin'. You've always been a friend to this club."

The slow sharpening of her glance cocked over him and he exhaled into the way she angled her jaw and arched her brow at him. The sudden brightened starkness of her eyes blanched the flush off him and he let his lungs rest into a sigh.

"Christ. I'm gettin' it from all corners now." he murmured quietly, ignoring the searching glance Trager was laying over him as well. "Where is she?"

"Outside." Eglee tipped between them knowingly, her fingers brushing along his arm as he nodded and shifted away from her.

* * *

><p>"I'm not starting anything, Scotty." She kept the leaned slant of her hips backed up against the side of her car, arms crossed against her own torso and long fingers lifted off her elbow into a dry explanation.<p>

"I know." His voice was just as lazy as the slow way he was moving toward her, his hands stuffed tightly into his pockets in a way that made her eyes dip before rising back up over his shoulders.

Christ, he was a cocky, droll, perfectly damn delicious son of a bitch.

"I just dropped her off." She murmured into how he was suddenly nearer to her than she'd expected, her shoulders slanting harder into the car at his leaned angle of intentional intimidation. He smelled of leather and whiskey and penned in sadness and she couldn't keep from leaning into the way it tugged on some sort of unexplainable sympathy.

Chibs let his head dip toward a tight angle, the sadness gilding his eyes brighter than normal nearly shadowed by the stark slant of an unspoken frustration. "I know."

"I just…you're still angry." She shook her glance past his shoulder, avoiding the unmitigated broadness of him by catching the way Rat was leaned up along the side of Red Woody's door, "Filip - "

"Shut up." The sudden snap of his patience startled into her, but also led him leaning farther along the length of her and she let her hips lax into it, knowing it was nearly exactly what she'd been aiming for, "Fuckin' Christ just shut your mouth, woman."

She bit into her lip as she looked over the grayed tone of his skin, arms still crossed and pressed up locked between them, "Hey."

"What'd I just say?" he asked sharply before his mouth crashed against hers with a desperation of force, his palms shoving roughly into her hips to back her flat against the car as his teeth ticked against hers before his tongue soothed the fury of his mouth.

The problem with drawing him into anything, luring him into any sort of stand off, was that even though she generally won the draw, he always managed to fire first. She hesitated her hands and he never held back. And his aim was all too true most every time - with quickened rough hands that always slanted softer and eyes she could only completely avoid when he kissed her into letting her own drop closed. The sudden slap of one of his palms thwacking into the car as he rasped his whiskey tinted mouth off hers breathlessly startled her shoulders into a tightened lift. Her head jerked up in a stoked defiance as he slanted his hips directly into hers and let his leaning lay more possessively intimate than suggestive.

"Just can't put the two of you together in my head. You're both too big when I think of ya." The hushed up admittance he made as he let his darkening eyes rake over her face and onto her hair had her blinking slowly. "Make sense?"

"No." she countered on a shrug, letting her knuckles press into his lower ribs even though she still hadn't unwrapped from around herself. "But okay."

"He didn't want me close to you. So I betray him." His voice was gravelling low and rasping off his lips on a brackish breath, "Y'despise what he did. And so I betray you."

"I've never - "

"I can't be true and right for you both at once, Althea." He laid the admission down over the tucked up leaning of her lanky frame. "And I've loved on him since he was a boy, mouth too big for hisself and twisted up by his dead father. I can't - "

"Shut up." She turned the order back on him in such a sure tightness that he pinched a guarded look over her, both palms stretching along the side of the car as her hands jerked into leather and pulled him closer into leaning over her. "Just shut your goddamn mouth, Telford."

He blinked a slow studying look over the penny coppering color of her, head leaning into a tired angle before an almost smile twitched along his lips, "There's my beautiful angry girl."

"I'm not angry." She lifted her shoulders even higher into the way he had let his palms slake off the car to stroke down the fabric on her ribs as he looked over her. "And referring to me as a 'girl' gets you nowhere."

"Hate when you have your hair up." He tipped the words over her, glance dipping down the way the brown tipped her shoulders and along her sleek throat. "This is better."

"You're deflecting."

"You're damning." He responded into a lagged weariness, finally meeting the unexplainable grace and acceptance that was still in her eyes, regardless of her thinning patience and a swinging of hurt. "Couldn't have you both at once and I'm not right with having you close while I'm puttin' him in the ground, love. Feels disloyal. To both of you."

"What did I just say?" she repeated the rushed annoyance of the same phrase, fingers wiping across his lips to stutter him silent before lifting her mouth into the leaning of his, drawing a sip of whiskey tint off him before wiping a half hearted smile against him.

"Take Eglee home." He murmured as he laid his forehead along hers. "Meet me."

"Meet you?" she cocked him a questioning look, confusion wiping the frustration from her features. "Where?"

"Jackie's. I gotta ride this day off my shoulders, Ally." He slowly pressed off from the car, lifting his spine achingly straightened from her leaning arch and catching the sudden coolness that banked into the stretch he'd had pressed into her. "Come with me."

Her brow lifted into an arched glance. "Stop drinking then."

"Done." He nodded sharply, eyes thinned as he held her glance. "Yeah?"

She shrugged slowly into the way she wiped her fingers on a shirt button, "Yeah."

"Still angry?" Chibs cocked quickly between them, unable to tamp down the bemused smile that clipped over his lips as she lifted a brazen and annoyed look in his direction. "Yeah?"

Ally ticked her fingernail against the button before shoving her flat palm into his chest, jacking him a step back as she shook her head, "No."

Sadness was still breeding a discord into his smile as he turned, but at least his eyes were nearer to velveted warmth than they had been.


	17. Chapter 17

"Fiona says it's - "

"Bleedin' Christ," he took the glass the other man handed toward him, letting his palm curl it comfortably as he lifted it into the interruption, "What I tell you, huh? Stop fuckin' listenin'."

"She says it's gonna be on Gaige." Malone angled them sidelong to each other, ignoring the other man's cutting tone as he continued, his own glass palmed in his hand, "Takes him outta Lindy's sight line and levels him up at once. He's been fast tracking since y'killed Jimmy. Putting an end to O'Shay opened him a big damn door."

Chibs bit down on mention of the other man, exhaling slowly before lifting the drink and taking a long swallow into a slow calming of his lungs, "Gaige is a piss poor shot and can't shake his dick dry with both hands, Con. Why so worried?"

"He's older now. Just like you and I, yeah?" the Irishman tipped back, letting his shoulders lean into the hashed tone, "You're full of it if you think I can't see that you're concerned."

"I'd be an idiot to not be somewhat concerned, yeah?" Telford shrugged as he glanced around the still full studio, letting his eyes drift down into the way he was lifting his glass once again before leaning it off in Connor's direction. "Fuck. Take this."

"Swearin' off your drink now, son?" the other man smirked as he settled the still half full glass to the circular table they were backed up against.

"Son?" Filip licked his lips along the edging of his tone.

"Filip - "

"Get outta my face with this shite today, Connor. My patience for your moanin' is extremely limited." He was tipping a shake of the head back out into the lingering crowd, watching the way Tig had Abel stretched long against the front of his chest, letting the boy pull against his beard with a wide eyed playfulness.

"Sure. Yeah." Connor's voice verged more toward quieted amusement as he followed the Scot's glance, smirking into the next breath, "You keeping the badge outta this because of Fi or because you think she'd prefer an actual Irishman?"

A sort of sickened up amusement managed to crack the pursing of his lips as he slowly shook an unkind smile toward the other man, "Been waitin' to use that line, haven't you?"

"Sorta." Malone shifted his shoulders into a sway of humor. "Christ knows you could use another gun hand if this tips, Filip. You're a bit short on trustworthy at the moment."

"No, Con, you're short on trusting." Chibs laid back tightly, letting his elbow bank back onto the table as he turned up a supposedly affable shrugging, "Look around ya. I've got plenty of friends to call on."

"That's the one that's watchin' you while y'sleep though, yeah? The law? Putting her at a distance to this isn't gonna separate her from it, Telford." There was a softening of concern and actual empathy to the other man's voice that he hadn't expected and he turned his head slowly into the stretch of it.

"She knows what she needs to know to watch herself. She's not a fuckin' princess. That woman can handle herself." Filip nodded tightly, letting his body angle closer toward Malone's in a turn of gentleness and near humor. "Trust me, she tells me so all the time."

"I've no doubt. Y'like your women trigger happy." Connor grinned back at him on an evening that they both seemed to feel laying out between them.

"You got a crush on me or something, Con?" Chibs gave him a quick wink, his body still angled a little as he lifted his jaw up into teasing, "Because y'seem awfully concerned about where I've had my dick."

Connor just grinned him a cocked glance back, his voice dropping a register to twist into whispering just loud enough to break past the murmur around them, "My concern is what leverage the Kings will use to put you on your knees if y'can't keep your mouth shut."

"I'll smile pretty and nod." Chibs let his glance drift back toward Trager, watching the way Venus and Wendy were both teasing between him and the boy. "Don't you worry. My daughter - "

"It's always been your family, Filip. These men and your women. Y'love too goddamn hard. You always have." The other man shafted the explanation so weightily between them that Chibs bit down on it. "I'm concerned because I'll need you and all your fancy friends if this falls to shit. So, yeah. I'm askin' questions."

"You askin', or is she?" he flicked a surreptitious glance back up to equally dark eyes.

"Not lyin' to the one woman who survived the likes of you and O'Phelan. She'd murder me in my sleep and be on a quick plane home if she liked." The answer was laden with a near hysterical breath of dry laughter, "She asks a question and I answer it nicely. Sweetly, even."

"You little shit." Chibs shook his head as he dragged his glance away, watching the crowd shift and pull, the sounds of it echoing around him a sort of familiar comfort, "Y'rat me out to my own wife?"

"Ex-wife, remember?"

The Scot felt a half smile twitch off his lips as he shook his head, "She's got Kerrianne safe at the moment and I know she'll keep her that way. That's all I care about, Connor."

"Sure."

"Althea can handle herself." He pressed slowly off the table, setting his shoulders up so that he was once again a lifted match to the other man. "She's cut through this mess clean, huh? Distance enough to keep her breathing."

Connor gave him a quick and jerked snort of derision, "Kings don't care about distance. The shit with Jax's boy didn't - "

"I get it." The slapping of Telford's interruption drew a swaying of attention from the people nearest to them and he intentionally stepped himself at a closing angle to the other man, letting his head bank into a tipping that went sour, "You think I don't see the fuckin' possibilities? I see every one of them in my sleep, okay? I'm handling it."

"Y'love too hard, Filip." Connor murmured up hushed into the shut down.

"And you walk too softly." Chibs aimed a finger at him as he back stepped from the conversation, "Kings are just men, Connor. They can bleed too."

* * *

><p>The tensed lifting to Trager's jaw was more than just concern and Chibs just shrugged his head aside to shake off the other man's look, "What was that?"<p>

"That was Connor puttin' his face too far into my business when he oughta be minding his own." He waved it off between them, looking over the shattering bright of blue in the older man's eyes, catching the pinning way they went toward crystalline, "You got a whole lotta angry all over your face right now, Tigger."

"It's nothin'." Tig just shook his head once to the side, jaw angling up in a defiance of the other man's concern.

"Bullshit." Chibs murmured a worrying fray between them, his knuckles rapping lightly into his Vice President's chest, "What's wrong?"

"Me and Hap aren't seeing eye to eye on somethin'." The lankier of the two explained, his tensed up palms curling at his belt and his shoulders swaying back as he pinched a thinning glance away from the conversation. "Nothing you need to worry about. It'll get settled."

"Tigger." Chibs pressed his knuckles farther forward affectionately, leaning his head to the side to catch the blanked blue glance.

"It'll get settled, Prez. My problem. I'll handle it."

Telford slicked his tongue against his bottom lip, dipping his head forward, "This is Venus? Her bein' here? Ignore it."

Defensive accusation shot up the other man's spine in a pinning of his entirely jittered angry body. "Chibs."

"Settle it hard and fast. No questions later. Yeah?" the Scot offered into lifting flatly defensive palms, already shifting farther back from Trager's frustration. "He's your brother. Make it a clear end and let it go."

Tig panned a mingled look of worry and wonder over the other man, "Thought maybe you'd be on his side."

"Tigger… M'not on a side. Trusting you to handle your own shit and make it work." He whispered it off on a weary bending of his body, hands shifting into his pockets as he shrugged between them. "Not leanin' into this. I picked you for that patch, yeah? Because I trust you."

"Yeah." Tig agreed into a flexing of his forearm, hand rising off his belt to pass along Telford's arm as they shifted apart, "Wendy's waiting for you so she can get the boys home."

"All right." He turned lagging back, leaning into the way Trager was still fingering against his shirt. "Hey. Two of us need a meet in the morning. Before church. Irish."

"Okay." Trager nodded his glance down, an uncomfortable shifting still riding over his muscles that had Chibs lifting the back of his hand along his chest.

"Y'know I love you?" he nipped fabric between fingers before he raised the other hand into the back of Tig's head, tipping them closer on a nodding of assurance.

"Yeah. You too, Prez."

* * *

><p>The dipped and half smiling nod Alvarez gave him gentled even farther into the way Chibs was leaning Abel into Wendy's arms, letting the boy catch against his leather before she urged him into the car. "Marcus."<p>

"Just wanted to say good night." Alvarez murmured softly, letting his body shift back as Chibs gave him a quick nod and angled his palm toward his bike.

"Chibs." Wendy's voice was a curtailed swinging of impatience as she looked between the two of them.

"Just strap them in, darlin'." He agreed as he shifted his steps toward his bike, lagging the Mayan with him. "I'm right behind ya."

"Really did just wanna give you my condolences." Marcus murmured as they shifted shoulders against each other, moving toward the bike. "Haven't seen you much."

"I know, I'm sorry." The Scot let off tiredly. "I've had the Irish fillin' up my radar. Haven't much - "

"Hey," the shorter man gave him a nodding shrug, letting his hand catch out against the edge of his cut and pull there. "I'm sorry about Jackson."

"Thank you." Chibs murmured as he leaned a hug into the shorter man, feeling the tightened gripping of the Mayan's hands drag into his patch. "Thank you for all you've done, Marcus."

"We'll make this work, ese." The smile Alvarez nodded over him as they parted drew his own lips toward curving, a sort of fraternal understanding breathing silently between them. "You call if you need anything."

Chibs gave him a nod as they dipped apart, tugging his helmet from the handlebar as he watched the other man step away.

* * *

><p>"Didn't know if you were still comin'." He murmured heavily over the boy's head, his palm stretched up and forward as Abel pulled at his rings, tuggingly trying to draw them from slightly curled and tensed fingers.<p>

"Never told me what time." Ally shrugged as she tucked her hands up into the long sleeves of the thin sweater she was wearing, leaning forward from the hips as she caught up Abel's glance, "Heya, kiddo."

"Hi." The boy murmured at her before his focus went back to the way he was crawled up into the man's lap, still tugging against the cross on Telford's left pointer finger.

"Ally." Chibs rubbed the murmuring into the child's hair.

"I know." Abel minced at him tightly, lifting Telford's palm up in her direction with a pleading look.

She smiled into the cocked glance Chibs gave her before stepping into the way they were cuddled together on the couch, taking both their hands into hers as she angled her balance cocked on her boots. Her fingers stroked against the stretching of his palm as Abel watched her slide the ring from his finger with an easy pull against a loosened stretching of his hand. She dropped a quick wink over the boy before taking his small hand up in hers and curling the ring into his palm, leaning down to tighten his fingers on it.

"You take care of this for him tonight, okay?" Her hair tipped forward as Abel nodded tightly into the whispering. "This ones mine. It's important to me."

"Okay." The boy told her quietly, worry suddenly shading his already paled face as he cast his glance up toward Telford.

Chibs gave both her and the child a perked glance of amusement before winking at Abel with a single nod. "Think Wendy said somethin' about a bath."

"No." Abel grunted as both his palms curled together, drawing the knotted hands into his still dress shirted chest, the tails of cotton untucked and hanging over the pajama pants he'd already been tucked into. "Don't wanna."

"Y'want that ring tonight y'will." Chibs curled his hand around the child's closed palms, the other arm hooking around the boy as he stretched up and stood, hanging the child loosely from his side as she smirked over them. "Tell Ally g'night, boyo."

Abel was shying her a lagging smile with too too tired blue eyes. "Night."

She couldn't resist the urge to tap the boy's nose, catching the mischievous tinting of his smile as he hung limply from Telford's arm. "Goodnight, kiddo."

The stroking of Filip's dark eyes laid achingly gently over her as he took a step forward, angling closer as the boy dropped his head playfully forward in wiggling, "Five minutes."

"I'm fine." She nodded slowly, letting her fingers press his cut with a tentative touching of gentleness. "Take your time."

"Wendy'd let you borrow a jacket or somethin'." He dipped a glance down the front of her, tugging Abel's shifting up higher toward his ribs.

She lifted her jaw into a quick and arched brow, enjoying the way he wearily kept letting his glance dip over her lips and back to her eyes, "You think I don't own a leather jacket, Scotty? Have we met?"

"Sure, of course y'do." His smile went bright and dimpled, shaking his head in slow amusement. "Don'tcha, Lieutenant?"

"I do. In the car." She couldn't help smiling into the way he swung Abel hard up into his chest, catching the boy's feet on the upward draw and wrapping the child into leather as he stepped away from her leaning.

"She's nice."

Chibs was laughing into the child's murmuring, "Most women start out that way, Sonny Boy."

* * *

><p>"So," he caught the lower hem of the jacket she'd pulled on, fingering the way it lined just along the jut of her hips as he drew the front closed and tagged the zipper together with sure and quick fingers. "gonna make you a deal, my love."<p>

"Really?" she lifted her head into the way he intentionally brushed his knuckles against the thin softness of her shirt before jacking the zipper halfway up, using the leverage of his pulling to tighten her closer. "I'm listening, Telford."

"Y'want the Irish?" he lifted a finger up, turning her jaw higher into the slow squinting he prowled over her arched angling. "You wanna know how it shakes down when the Kings land, yeah?"

Ally cocked him a slowly scrutinizing glance. "No. You don't give me business details, sweetheart."

He perked her a show of dimples at the lackadaisical laze of the term. "Sweetheart?"

"Ironic usage, I assure you." She shunted him off the way he was pressing his thighs flush into hers. "You don't deal with cops, President."

"We've managed to broker some prime bargains, Althea." He caught into her hips and tugged her back into him, stepping forward to walk her toward the bike with slowly guiding steps, his assurance suddenly so clear in his movements that she let him lead.

"What do you want?" Her voice dipped hush as he curled palms against her hips, using the press of his forearms to drop her down onto the seat of the bike roughly.

"A name." he tripped his fingers against the leather on her stomach before bending, jerking the extra helmet up into her hands before he grated a noise off his throat, searching down the length of her and the way she'd straightened on the seat. "That's a good look for you, Lieutenant."

"And what do I get?" she asked into the way his hand stretched slowly across her, his body pressing along the heat of her arm and shoulder as he lifted his own helmet.

"A name." he murmured as he kept his body mostly still, turning his jaw down into the way she was watching him, teasing a kiss close to her lips but drawing it back when she lifted her jaw.

"Filip - "

"I'll give you the Irishman the Kings are sending over. Y'can background check, pull everything you've access to, huh?" he finally dropped a slowly stroking kiss against her, the empty hand skating the run of her back with sloping fingers to tug into her hair.

Ally stretched into the way he dropped his hands as he pulled his lips from hers, eyes darkening as he shifted her back on the seat. "And?"

"I want the name of the man who did this to you." His fingers tapped low against her torso, aim true to the scar and catching down leather to denim as his glance went shaded to blackness.

"Oh, no." she shook her head slowly into a certain judging scrutiny, pulling the helmet on as he did the same. "Not giving you a target for displaced rage, Telford. He's probably dead by now anyhow."

"Come on, now." He thinned his glance back to the brighter burn of hers, "What am I gonna do from here, huh? It's a trade in your favor, darlin'."

She just laid a disbelieving glance into the way he was looking long over her still downed hair, watching as she tied it off to one side of her throat.

"It's just a name, Althea."

She squinted into a defiant taunting. "Last name."

"Deal." He whispered in his leaning over her. "Gaige."

"Caffee." She murmured slowly into the way he was smirking.

"Done." He nodded before trapping her up for another kiss, making it sharp and tight and hard before quickly ending it and turning, leaning onto the bike carefully.

"You play dirty, Scotty." The sway of her pressing flush into his back was a sudden heat that managed to edge the rest of the damn long day into the peripheral, her murmuring a gentle teasing against the back of his ear.

Chibs shrugged forward a smile as he tugged his gloves on, his throat throttling off a pleased noise when her hands curled up under leather to skirt his waist. "As though you're surprised."

"Sorta turned on, actually." She laid into the back of him warmly, palms rising on his sides as she tightened up on him. "Where are we going?"

He just shrugged his jaw toward his shoulder, catching the way she pressed leaning into leather. "Not here."


	18. Chapter 18

Within the bend of a few hours, not even a full day since he'd been sweetly told he was a dangerous sort of man, he realized that he'd let himself lean deep into the hands of a madly hazardous woman. Because she was playing at a game he hadn't tipped hands into in years, the rate of her fingers stroking the denim between his legs ebbing with each alteration of speed he laid into the road. The faster he throttled the engine and the stronger her palm and long fingers against his erection went. And the slower he curved them on corners, the gentler she traced the touches.

Long after they'd passed out of range of city lights she'd found a way to pry open his zipper and he'd leaned a groaning into the air she pressed fingers past fabric, her other arm so tightly caught around his chest that her fingers were knotting his shirt to his sternum. And when he geared down, angling them onto a shoulder and tilting them into a jerked stop the sound of her laughter was the lasting replacement to the roar of the bike.

"You're a lunatic, Althea." He caught against her wrist tightly, kicking down the stand as he lifted her palm and kissed into the relaxed curling of her hand. "Y'know that?"

"Like you haven't gotten off on this bike before." She curled her chin and the whisper along his shoulder, head tipped as he laid a growling noise into her hand before skipping his teeth onto her wrist and kissing back against the scraping. "I don't believe you're any sort of innocent, Telford."

He wiped a longing sound from his lips to the perfumed taste of her skin, "And I don't believe you're easy t'fool, love. Not tryin' to."

The jerked twisting of his arm angled her off the bike, pulling and leaning her around so that both his hands could cage up to draw the helmet off her, his fingers swift and forceful as he let it off to the ground at the side. He dropped his guiding hand back laced loosely against hers and used it to tuck her back tight, facing him and balanced hip first into the updraw of his knee, Her smile graced on him and he could just almost see its curvature as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, his hand catching into the way she'd side drawn her hair to pull her down over the lift of his head.

"C'mere." The rubbing of his commanding tone on her cheek was softened by the way he tugged along her hips, the full stretch of each palm staying her balance as she slid back into the bike and flush into the lean of him.

"Chibs - "

"Don't interrupt me. I'm busy." He grazed between them, shucking off his own helmet before letting his hands catch into the leather jacket she was wearing, a gloved finger catching above the zipper tab and sliding it down with a far too practiced slant of his fingers.

"Filip." Her fingers had already sloped back under his cut, gripping into the chilled cotton.

"I said - "

"Filip." She whispered the repeated hush of his name into a rushing of darkness and he dropped his forehead forward into her collarbone, letting leather grasp on leather as he exhaled.

His breathing went rickety along her skin, impatience cutting along the slant of his accent as he dug his hands into stillness, "What?"

"I don't think you loving him betrays me." She offered into an unfamiliar softness, a murmuring of peace that still twitched awkward on him. "You've loved him for years."

Finding faultless warmth on her was always more of a surprise than expected.

It always made his lungs burn and his fingers flex into whatever he was touching.

He ground his head harder into the spread of her collarbone, groaning off an excess of air from his lungs as he intentionally reached for her legs, pulling them up against his hips and holding her taut balance as he lifted his mouth into hers. He took smaller kisses off her than usual, letting them tease her into smiling enough that he could feel the curve of it just before she laughed breathless.

"You - "

"No," he argued quietly into a grazing affection, shoring her balance before he pulled her jacket open and skirted his hands up under her shirt to press leather on skin, "you."

"What about me?" she let a certain tint of playfulness color the darkness.

"Y'talk too much." He teased into letting his mouth lay along the side of her throat, swallowing the scent of her hair into the back of his throat.

"Well, I'm a woman." She angled along his ear, catching the way his forward shifting tipped her hips but his hand caught up under her thigh to hold her still.

"I well fuckin' aware of it, Althea." The clip of his boots into the dirt was a hard sound that ground up from under her and she let her spine loosen lax into the way he was dipping her into the handlebars. "That's why I'm trying to get in your pants. Y'could make it a little easier, y'know?"

"I'm not an easy woman." She tugged against leather, laughing into the way the jerked and unaware lean of him tipped their balance momentarily, forcing his hands to cage them still as his legs tightened.

"Don't y'dump this bike, baby."

She blinked into how suddenly close and clear his smile was in the darkness, his eyes glossy points that roved over her face as he wiped against her lips. "Did you just call me 'baby'?"

"Can't help it when you're sweet." He groaned a kiss onto her, letting her catch along his tongue with her teeth before he lifted his head again, "Y'wreck me sometimes, Lieutenant."

The usual flippancy of his tone had been displaced, broken up by a raking sincerity.

"Slick son of a bitch." She piped up at him on an exhalation, tugging her fingers into his shirt as she shifted her hips carefully into his.

"Yeah?" he was grinning and she could hear the warmth of it.

"Pants off." She nodded into the way he was laying another kiss onto her, laughter breaking off his lips.

"I'll have y'know," he licked against her bottom lip, shifting enough to trace against the button of her jeans, "That was far from easy."

* * *

><p>She was far more than sure that somehow she'd lost a whole level of rational reasoning into the supposed safety in his hands. Because she knew he was a damn football field away from being safe to her. If she were as logical as she knew she actually could be, he was the end of her career. He was the end of her pride. And, possibly, he was the end of her. Regardless of how strong or soft or sure his hands could be in their uses, how tautly comforting the stretch of his arms could be. He'd slaughtered her reason and hadn't even had to kill her in the act murdering.<p>

Logic had been failing her and faulting her since she'd stepped into this shitty little town. Everything she knew about how to work a situation – because any situation was somehow workable – had gotten scattered up in her brain. Hazed up by the way his aftershave and liquor and leather and blood smelled, tasted, touched over her.

She told herself blankly, eyes open as he shifted his palm down the flat of her abdomen, that this was not love. This was a distraction. This was a hell of a lot of lust. This was her repetitive dramatic leaning toward a certain damning hedonism. It was a trip up steps that always had her stumbling upward. She could make this work. She always fucking had before.

He wasn't the first criminal she'd curled around and whisper begged into coming.

"Y'look sad." There was a confusion rifing up in his accent and she let her head turn long onto the pillow, her palm wiping over her face.

He wasn't the first –

"Althea." His palm clipped so quick and hard against her jaw that she sharpened an annoyed glance into the way he was studying her face, holding her head still. "What?"

Why did she feel so very sure that he was gonna be the last?

"I have to get up." She let her eyes dip back closed on the deflection, stretching her back into the way rarely used muscles echoed a different annoyance. "I'm gonna be late."

Whether it was because he broke her, busted her career, or got her bloodied.

This was the one that would take her down.

Everything about him lately had been an end of some sort.

"Look at me." The cautious twining of dark in his eyes matched the tension that suddenly tightened along his face, fingers keeping her face still as he drew his head level and close over hers, "What?"

"I can't stop." She admitted into laxing her back into the mattress, letting him control the turn of her jaw as he watched her lips, "I've never not been able to stop."

There was a flinching along his jaw, something half between a scrutiny and a knowing frustration. Damn near a tinting akin to fear.

"Stop what? What are you - "

She lifted her fingers against his lips and then the scar along his cheek, glance following the shift of her fingertips as she lined along it. The first time she'd reached for his face he'd flinched from it. She knew then that she'd find a way to make him lean toward the touch instead of away from it. She didn't realize how heavy the cost of sacrifices would be in order to make it turn her way.

"I don't want to stop." She admitted, regardless of the knowledge that he was some sort of endgame in her life, good or bad, "I want you."

Chibs angled his face tighter into her touch, a surreptitious squint laying over her as he intentionally stroked down her throat, "You're not makin' sense, darlin'. You losin' your focus?"

"Losing my mind." Her whisper was oddly blank, but also clearly controlled and awfully damn close to perfectly sure of something he couldn't figure. "You're the biggest mistake I've made in years."

"That was awfully kind." He snorted into the flush on his cheeks, head shaking down into a pang of near hurt. "Same t'you, Sheriff."

"I mean it, Scotty." Both her hands were drawing up on his jaw and her voice was a low hush between them, her mouth lifting to nudge their lips together chastely before she exhaled a weighty confusion, "I haven't fucked up on this scale since - "

"Since some prick put a bullet in your gut and wasted half your insides?" His patience was leaning thin and the despondency that paled her features was starting to wear through his guard, making anger flush his chest as he drew hard up the length of her, "Think it's smart to compare me to your childhood misadventures? We're all grown up and old, sweetheart. Y'havin' second and third thoughts all over again? Get yourself straight. I don't have time for - "

"I thought I loved him." The flush and sudden admittance sent a green into her glance that made him watch her eyes for just the plain quixotic prettiness of them.

He didn't think she knew how true he'd been telling when he'd told her that any vulnerability of softness along the stretch of her was the thing that always wiped him out and rashed him like a poorly paved road. Just the same as the invading prettiness of her fury was the onslaught that stopped him heart-still.

"I'm not playin', Althea." There was a slow lacing of sadness in his voice but the way he bore down over her was too tight in its demand to be anything but accusatory, "Buried too much already this week. If you're goin', get gone."

"You're in my bed." She pressed up haughtily into the downward locking of his hips and hands, "And that's not what I'm saying."

"Whatcha sayin' then?" his jaw lifted as his body softened a little, stretching down so that he could wipe teasing lips down the line of her sternum, a smile cresting her skin when she curled her fingers along the back of his neck. "Because your head's not clear and you're lettin' it stir shit up."

"Don't make me regret you, Filip." Her nails caught against skin and scraped on a sort of intentional play toward demanding and he lifted a surprised glance into her surety, "The men I regret always regret me more when it's done."

"That sounds like a threatening, darlin'." The smile he gave her was full with feral contempt, at least until he licked against his lips and bit down, head cocking over the way he was pressed down over her chest, "Maybe your focus is spot on, yeah? Maybe it's my bed too."

"Maybe it is." Her legs lifted closer onto his hips, the fingers she'd had at his neck curving circles against his shoulder as she shrugged.

Maybe he was the last of her mistakes and maybe he was the endgame.

Maybe she was learning to be fine with that reality.

Because maybe he really was worth the asking price she'd have to pay to keep him right where he was.

"Where is he? Huh?" he was kissing the question along flushed skin, his tongue rising against a nipple before he closed his mouth against it.

"It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it." Her breathing shivered on its own and she let her shoulders back into the pillow, moaning her eyes shut as he let his teeth graze against her nipple.

"Probably dead already?" He whispered warmth into damp skin, the words tripping between her breasts as he aimed for the other, palm closing up along her ribs, "That's whatcha said, right?"

"I don't kill people just because they have shitty aim, Scotty." Her fingers were unconsciously rubbing his ear, the other hand digging against his shoulder as her hips arched into his stomach to urge him.

"What exactly would make you kill a man, my love?" His tongue lashed against her before he dropped his mouth down a fraction, kissing a line down to her scar so that he could suck against the marked skin. "Huh? You sittin' closer to the Reaper than you let everyone think? Which line's a man gotta cross, Lieutenant?"

"I'll let you know when you're comin' up on it." She felt how breathy her own voice had become, tried to drown herself into a deep inhalation even as she curled her hands on his shoulders and pushed, "Down."

"Thought you had to get up." He was wiping a grin down her stomach, lips passing kisses wherever he damn felt like putting them. It was driving her hips higher into a leading arch.

Her fingers pressed on his shoulders again before she tugged playfully against his jaw, angling his head lower, "Thought you were going down."

"Thought you were gettin' ready to go." The shifting of his shoulders as he forced her thighs up and farther apart broke a victorious grin over her lips, hand wiping against the sudden sweat that had lined her throat.

Her other hand strayed against the back of his head, fingers teasing touches along his hairline as he curled comfort between her legs, letting his calloused palms stroke already tense skin as he laid wet kisses along one taut thigh, "Thought you were deciding to stay."

"Aye, I'll stay." His tongue lined along her pelvis on a teasing, "Only because y'ask so nicely."

The first stroke of his tongue against her clit had her body arching her spine from the mattress, a moan slaking off her as she rode her hips into his tasting. The smooth laugh he laid between her legs made her blush into the way she dug her hair back off her face and leaned to watch him. Her other hand still was teasing his hair as he dipped his mouth lower to meet the way he'd sloped his fingers into full wetness. A blink of brown eyes met hers before he dropped his mouth against her clit again, teeth and tongue teasing against her as he stroked a finger into clenching muscle.

"Do you regret me yet, Filip?" She felt the words tip out before she could catch them, wiping along his ear as his head lifted confusion into the question. "You're only here because Jax is dead."

"Sure, in a fashion." He was turning a squinted glance up over the stretch of her, another finger suddenly driving up into her on a twist of agreed accusation, "Same as you. Seem to remember you ending this while he was still alive."

"You can be better than him." She whispered assurance into the way she bore down against his fingers, whimpering when he caged his thumb against her clit and rubbed circles there in a slowly made teasing, "You can make this work without rage."

"My world doesn't work right without some sorta rage, Althea." She watched the turn of his head as he nicked his teeth into her thigh, soothing the rising mark with his tongue a moment later, "Gears lock up. Momentum stops."

Ally caught against his ear and tugged, reaching against his jaw as she arched into the way he was still wiping against her clit slowly, "Your world's different now, President. Find a way."

"I like how you're tellin' me to be upright while you keep pushin' me down. It's only slightly hypocritical." There was a flippant sarcasm to his whisper as he laid it back between her legs and licked against her, drawing a moaning from the center of her lungs.

"I really like your mouth between my legs, Scotty. I'm fine with being a hypocrite."

"Y'fine with being the better half of the Reaper?" His words lifted up over her pelvis, fingers slowly drawing from inside her and emptying a whimper from her throat all at once, "I gotta know you can carry it, Althea. Or it doesn't work the way we want it to. It falls apart."

"Just don't make me regret you." She palmed against the back of his head, downing his jaw as she lifted her hips, "And everything'll be just fine. Stop making me wait, Filip."

He couldn't help but smile into the direct tone of her voice, the sure shot way she angled his mouth back exactly where she wanted it while her fingers laid a line of comfort back and forth against the base of his skull. There was a curling in her fingers as her hips rose and fell, her leg lifting into his shoulder as he let his fingers and tongue and teeth scrape and raze and soothe against her. Tasting the way she constantly pushed and pulled against him in every little thing, even as her fingers pulled him closer and her hips drove against him. He felt the shivering in her, the tension in toned up thighs that always closed on him before she gave up to letting him have her completely and openly vulnerable.

He didn't think she realized how much he craved that moment, when she came and didn't care who they were or what they did. Didn't care about anything but keeping him close as she moaned into surrender and let him own every inch of her concession. He didn't think she knew that he memorized how she tasted and touched and moaned every time she let go and just gave into him. It was an imperfect stability that tasted like sugar and nitrate and remnants of smoke.

She always tasted like an unexpected detonation. And it always left them both a little crumbled.

"Wearin' that uniform wastes some of the best parts of you, darlin'." He murmured into the leftover shiver of her hips, lifting his head into the way she lagged a sated and too near to loving glance over him, "There's a little outlaw in you and you're letting the badge keep you from usin' that potential."

"And?"

"It's damn near terrifying." He wiped his grin against her stomach as his arms broached her sides, drawing his chest higher as her legs finally went lax. "What you'd be capable of."

"Badge keeps me up here," Ally let her palm cage loosely against his shoulder as she let her back lay level into the bed, "and you down there. And you say I talk too much, Scotty? You just put me almost an hour behind schedule. You couldn't just shut up and do your job?"

"Feels like I did a fine job, Althea." His fingers taking another quick swipe into damp wet and sensitive skin had her hips jumping as he grinned, "Quit bitchin'."

"Pay you back later?" Her fingers wiped along the rising of his jaw, the heat of him drawing over her as he shrugged a slow acceptance and dragged damp fingers along her stomach.

"We can work somethin' out, I'm sure."

"Outlaw potential, huh?" she pinched into his hip as her lips caught up against his and dragged a groan off him, "In your dreams, President."

"You often are, Lieutenant." He slackened back into her mattress, watching the long naked stroke of her as she headed for the bathroom, eyes pinching shut into the way she'd left him with a raging damn hard on and the taste of her along his lips.

"Hey, Scotty."

He blinked his eyes open, head turned onto her pillow with a quizzical smirking as she leaned into her doorframe. "What?"

"I'm already late." She shrugged as a sweetened smile traced her face toward flushed pink, the dark of her hair crowding wild and hazy against her face. "Get your ass in here."

"So demanding." He curled onto his side, "Maybe you're gettin' too sure of yourself, love."

"Maybe." She shrugged agreement into his watching. "Maybe you need someone who doesn't give a damn what the patch you wear says. Get in here before I change my mind."

"Meant what I said." He murmured across the room.

"Which part?" she was edging her cheek against the wood of the frame.

"Gotta be sure you can carry this, Ally." He leaned his head into his hand, "Means you gotta be sure."

Her eyes lidded low and thin as she lifted her jaw away from the frame, "Better half of the Reaper? Thought I was already."

He bit down against the smile that threatened along his lips. "I mean it, Althea."

"And I mean it when I say get your ass in here or you're gonna be walking around with a hard on all day." The tipping of her head angled toward the lift in her shoulder before she turned away from him and he snorted a dry laugh into the sound of water before stretching off her mattress.


	19. Chapter 19

"Running behind this morning, LT?"

"Don't break my balls, Carreira." She shook her head as she took the stack of paperwork he handed over, giving him an arched glance as he tipped a smirk between them. "I slept in, okay?"

"In what?" he cast a grin over her, face looking young and full in his pressing humor.

Ally blinked semi amused surprise into his playful banter, "You're a little shit."

"Yes." He dipped his head in jauntingly sure agreement, stepping into her side as they both aimed toward her office. "But I'm your favorite little shit. Wanna know why?"

"Not really." She snorted off in derision.

"Yes, you do." He pulled her into stalling before she'd even reached her office, dragging her quick steps still by the tweak of his fingers on her uniform and the hashed quieted quality of his voice. "Seriously, Lieutenant. Patterson was in your office first thing. Didn't wait around."

She felt the sure slackening of color draining from her throat but it flushed her cheeks as she shook her head into an exhale, "Fuck."

"Told her you pushed your schedule back because of the Cahill deposition." He gave her a quick nod. "Wanted to be on duty for the transcripts when they came in."

"Why?" she tipped a glance between him and the closed door. "You don't have to do this, Luis. I don't want you putting yourself in a position that's gonna - "

"I don't know what you're doing, Jarry… but I'm trusting you to make it work, okay? I think you truly wanna straighten shit out around here." he gave a dipping nod, his dark eyes holding hers as he stepped back. "Prove me right, huh?"

Ally let her shoulders sink into a nod of agreement, "Thank you, Deputy Little Shit."

He grinned widely into a mock salute as his steps angled backwards, drawling into a Southern swing of an accent, "You're awfully welcome, ma'am."

* * *

><p>He accepted the coffee mug into one palm and the ring she dropped into the other, her face panning a knowing amusement over him as he curled his fingers over it and nodded slowly. Chibs set the coffee to the counter and wedged the ring back onto his finger with a slowly lagging shrug, lifting the steaming mug once again as Wendy cast a glance over him. Her eyes thinned and the reaching of her fingers had him lifting his head in confused worry just before she caught along his jaw and tipped his head to the side. The blonde cocked him a disbelieving glance before smirking into the mark that was rashed red along his throat.<p>

"You two? You're shameless." She waved her fingers between them before reaching for another mug, filling it as her hip cocked into the counter. "You're gonna knock that woman up, Chibs. And fuck up her career in the process."

"No, I'm not, Wendy." There was a tightly laced surety to his voice that drew her head back up as she sipped at the bracingly bitter coffee. "Can't."

Wendy arched a brow and snorted the mug back to the counter, turning toward the table so that she could catch up the cereal box, closing it as she shook her head, "You're not that old. And she's - "

"She can't." He offered the quiet interruption into the whole of the kitchen, letting it sway out in front of him with certainty as he braced the mug into his chest. "Got a hole put through her twenty years ago. Took her out of the mommy business. This ain't about playin' house, sweetheart. Just need her close."

The brightly colored box was still trapped up in her palms as she turned him a slowly understanding but silent look, the long waves of her hair tipping farther to one side as her body settled most of its weight to one heeled boot. Wendy caught his glance with her own, a surfeit of something like sympathy dragging in the darkness of her eyes. Her head shook slightly back and forth before she stepped toward the cupboard, hands slow to put the cereal away.

"And you still asked her to help me with the kids? You keep putting them in her face? That's sorta harsh." She accused softly before stepping back in his direction, reaching for her cup as she leaned into the counter at his side, letting her arm press up into his as she shook her head in a saddened empathy.

"She's a big girl. And it's been a long time." Chibs murmured on a slow shrugging, "Sure she's seen plenty of children in twenty years. They tend t'be everywhere."

Wendy's head lifted sidelong into staring at his winced profile, studying the way his focus was laid blankly forward, "Then why are you trying so hard to keep these ones close?"

"Because these ones are my goddamn family." The sharp speed of his retort lined up with the quick turning of his eyes to hers.

"Nero says - "

"I don't give a shit what Nero says." His accent slanted thick into his flustered argument, hand lifting the mug up in a wave of explanation, "Nero's been runnin' back and forth for years and where's it gotten him? Gem's dead. Jax is dead. We're livin'. I need those boys, darlin'. I need my family."

"They're not gonna replace Jax and Juice."

He went surprised and breathless into the slapped statement she'd sent between them, lungs shunting off a hard rush of oxygen, "I know that."

"They're not - "

"I need t'make it right." The cup made a resounding thunk against the counter and his head angled into the way he leaned sideways toward her, "I need to make Jackie's sacrifice worth somethin'. For fuck's sake, Wendy. I'm tired. I'm done. It's over."

"It'll never be over." She disagreed into a saddened softness.

"You can help fix this." Chibs lifted an aiming at her, tightening down over the way she was crossing her arms defensively over her chest, "Or you can run away with those boys and take them from the men who are tryin' to get right for them. You're not the only one who loves them. No, it'll never be perfect. It'll never be pure clean. That's why I want you to stay, keep those boys here. Keeps the fuckin' balance. Reminds us what we're doin' this for."

"Chibs - "

"Neither of you were changin' diapers or worryin' about meds when we brought that first boy home. And it wasn't either of you cleanin' spit up off leather at three in the goddamn morning when Tara was on her fuckin' knees with the flu and Jackson - "

"Okay." She finally lifted a pressing palm into the leather layered his chest, her head angling up into a swing of intentional calming. "I get it."

"I won't let them want for anything, Wendy." He leaned a new quietness into her. "They won't need anything but their mother."

There was a certain softening laying over her face, even if there was still a tracing of disbelief on her features, "Chibs."

"I won't let anything touch them." He murmured gently. "Won't keep makin' the same mistakes. I swear it. We're their family too."

"That why you're keeping the cop around?" A teasing tipped up into the way she wiped against leather before lifting her coffee again, aiming it toward him in questioning, "Keep reminding yourself?"

"I have a fair number of reasons for keepin' her around, darlin'." A smile haunted over his lips as he shrugged, fingers curling back around his own coffee but hand staying it stilled to the counter, "Obviously, not many of them to do with children."

She blinked at him with a nod, shoulders shifting into a shrugging, "I'm considering it, Chibs. You know that. Let me get through Children's Services first."

"Aye, I know." He exhaled as he dumped the last of the cooled coffee into the sink. "Meetin' Tiggy. Montez'll hang around a bit if you need anything."

"How much longer are we gonna have a guard squad around, President?" she asked after him as he moved away from her.

"Til the Irish come and go." He answered as his palm caught up along the doorframe, stalling his steps. "I'll see ya later."

* * *

><p>"Aw, Mother of Christ."<p>

"What?" Tig's head stroked up quickly from the way he was slanted into the bar, his head lifting off the way he'd been wearily riding his chin into his palm.

Chibs lifted his phone and waved it between them, blinking a soured glance off the Caller ID before answering it, "Hello, sweet. Awful long time."

"Figured you weren't gonna call." Fiona's voice was a sharp but so damningly familiar heat rushing over the line. "Stubborn jackass."

"Knew you'd be the bigger man." He twitched back just as tightly, letting his free hand curl onto edging of the bar, head dropping forward under Tig's cautious watching. "You all right? Kerriane's - "

"Your daughter's fine." Her tone had at least veered calming, words settling a bit softer over the line. "I'm fine."

"And?" He blinked confusion up into the way Tig was watching him, shrugging into the other man's wide eyed look of concern.

"And you're a bleedin' fuckin' fool, Filip." She slapped out over him quickly, a near on affection cutting into the way she loosened his name on him.

"Ain't nothin' changed, huh?" He couldn't help taking the grin up into the way Tig was smirking, his jaw once again leaned into his hand as he stayed near.

"You're not funny."

"Used to make you laugh plenty." Chibs stepped into the stool and leaned onto it, letting his arm break along the bar so that he could relax the tightness in his shoulders, "Callin' me about Gaige? Malone already passed along your little - "

"He's already stateside." Fiona's voice was a sudden breathless rush, perking his head up sharply into an attentive inhalation. "Thought you should know. Straight into California, I would assume."

"Fuck." Chibs cut a quick glancing to the side, catching Tig's eyes and shaking his head into the way the other man stretched up and palmed against the bar, "Don't mess about, Fi. Y'mean it?"

"I mean it. Didn't know how fast it was coming your way, Filip. This is the first I've heard it."

It was the first real sound of sweetness in her voice and he appreciated the way it slung an unexpected kind of peace between thousands of miles.

"All right. I gotta - "

"You keep your calm, Telford. Don't you out-step yourself, understand me?" It wasn't just order in her tone, there was a pleading in it too.

"I do." He agreed softly. "I know. I got it."

"Promise me. For Kerrianne."

"I promise." He agreed gently, pressing up into the bar so that he could reach across it, tapping against Trager's pocket to clip against his phone.

"If I have to send her - "

"Just do it." Chibs nodded as the other man tugged out his phone, curling his palm on it with an obvious look of concern. "I'll be on the other end waitin'."

"And if she needs you here?" Fiona interrupted the way he was trying to communicate with the other man, her frayed edging evident in her voice.

"Then I'll be there." He murmured softly.

"You bringin' your girlfriend too then?" Her words swung right back up toward a clipped and acerbic taunt.

"Knew you just couldn't hold your tongue." He slicked his tongue against his lips as he shook his head, "Need to handle this. Not havin' this discussion."

"Just askin'." Her tone went tightened up to match his but then quieted calmer and softer in a type of stolid support as she continued, "Go on then. Fix this."

"Thank you, Fi." He cut the line off quickly, clattering the phone to the counter as Tig already had his lifted in waiting. "Check in with Montez. Find out where Wendy's got the boys and send TO along. They don't move alone. You call Rat to us too, okay?"

"What happened?" Tig was already dialing the phone, tucking it up to his ear as he lifted his jaw.

"Irish are already here, Tiggy." He grabbed at his own phone and turned away from the bar, steps sure toward the door. "We just got bumped up on their heavy schedule. Quinn here?"

"Naw, TM with Hap." Tig called after him before catching the other man on the line.

* * *

><p>"You're a big scary dude."<p>

"Yup." The larger man nodded slowly into the way he lagged his arms across his chest, head cocked as he let his head dip so he could search over his sunglasses. "Just enjoying the day, Deputy."

Carreira waved his hand up along one of his own shoulders, "Your traps and delts are, like… fuckin' glorious, man."

"You flirting with me?" Quinn cocked back on a smirking, leaned casually back into the railing that lined the steps into the station. "I'm not into your type, bud."

"Naw," Carreira waved off between them as he lugged his gym bag higher on his shoulder and shook his head, "I'm not gay."

Rane let up a chuckle, "I meant cops."

Carreira snorted off a laugh and continued down the steps, "LT's inside. She's gonna be awhile. Gettin' her ass chewed, I'm pretty sure."

"Like I said," Quinn shrugged after him, "just enjoying this beautiful day."

"Like I said," the officer threw back over his shoulder as he continued toward the parking lot, "She's gonna be awhile."

* * *

><p>"How long's she had you waitin'?"<p>

"Didn't tell her I was here, Prez." Quinn shrugged loosely into the way the older man was slowly making his way up the steps to lean into his side. "Sun's nice. Warm. It's a gorgeous day."

Chibs lifted a mildly quizzical glance up over the other man, tipping his sunglasses half down his nose as his brow arched, "You're an odd man sometimes. Y'know that, right?"

"I enjoy the little things." Rane shrugged as he let his head tip back, eyes dipped closed behind his glasses as he raised his face into the sun. "Why ruin her day so soon, Chibs? Figured I'd wait."

"And if I'd needed you elsewhere?" Chibs asked into a softness, leaning from the way Hap was close to his back.

Quinn gave him a shrug, "I woulda ruined her day a little sooner."

The Scot thinned him a quickly scrutinizing glance, "You scared of ruining that woman's day, Quinn?"

"No." The larger man lifted a shrugging, "Just didn't think it was necessary."

"Bullshit." Happy tossed up as Chibs' lips perked into a grin. "You're lettin' him do it."

Quinn just grinned back over the both of them, his muscles completely relaxed in his leaning, "I see no need to ruin a beautiful woman's day when another man can do so. Why get her pissed at me? She likes me. You, she's not so sure of."

Filip snorted as he tugged the glasses off his face, taking a step to lever himself taller than the other man as he aimed between the two of them, "I'll be sure to spread a little bit of blame your way, don't you worry."

* * *

><p>She didn't even need the dusted up scent of leather and smoke to know that he was too damn close for leaning in the middle of her station. He was too warmly pressed up into her space and she could feel his hands on her hips, grazing her waist, even if he wasn't actually touching her. The spread of his fingers as he leaned into one of her deputy's desks, all long with worn in leather, caught her attention as she turned her head into how stolid the heat of his chest was near her back.<p>

"What the hell are you doing?" Ally murmured slowly along her shoulder.

"Need to talk."

"Need you to stop swinging your dick around my station." She responded tightly into the way she started stepping away from him, "Second time in a week, Telford?"

"Ah." The catching of his fingers into the back of her belt jerked her spine straight and flacked her straight shouldered into a frenzied anger that had already been brewing an ache behind her eyes. "Hold up, Lieutenant."

She swung into the reaching of his hand, wrist clipped down to break his hold as she stepped into the leaning space of his chest and the wash of his patient smirking, "Watch your hands, Scotty."

Chibs exhaled slowly into the jerked rise of her jaw, still smiling into the billowed rise of her anger, "Hold, darlin'. Please?"

"Did you just 'please' me?" Her eyes lilted down over his lips before rising back, "That was sorta sweet. What did you do?"

"We need to talk." He nodded slowly into letting his head angle, glance flickering over the bullpen and the handful of officers that were poorly pretending not to watch them. "Fi called."

Any sort of affection that had started to soften the angles of her face suddenly dropped off as her eyes rolled and she turned away from him, steps already leading toward her office.

"Sheriff?" he cast into her silence, tapping his fingertips in an impatient rapping against the desk.

"My office, Telford."

* * *

><p>"Stop it." She sighed into the way he was stepping boot falls around her, his shoulders so confident in their lined up lift that she couldn't help but watch him angle to her side.<p>

He chipped a breathy laugh along her arm as he leaned his steps closer, "Not doin' anything."

"Stop."

"Stop what?" He questioned with a supposed lightness of innocence.

"Filip."

Chibs slacked his body back from the tightness she'd hushed into his name, letting his hips lead back into the wall under the window that led to the outer office. "Quinn's been outside for over an hour."

"So?" Ally shrugged up with a look of near contempt.

"You were supposed to be leavin'. I want him with you."

"With me?" She repeated brightly, cocking him a teasing glance.

"Well, not with you." He tipped back in her direction before glancing around her office, studying the scattered and paperwork mussed desk. "Biblically speaking."

"Neither flirting nor trying to piss me off are going to make me forget the part where you mentioned your wife." Ally laid between them slowly, drawing his glance back up through his lashes though he didn't lift his head.

"Ex-wife."

She arched a brow at him, "Semantics, Scotty. She's your daughter's mother."

The fact that he drew a long lungful of patience deep into his chest made her relax her spine as he spoke, "Irish are already here, Ally. No warning, no contact. That's not the kindest of arrivals. I shouldn't know Gaige is here. He doesn't want me t'know – which means he's finding ground. I want Quinn with ya."

"I don't need - "

"Need you." His soft interruption seemed more serious, just out of the hush he used to break over her argument, "Need to know you're clear of it."

Ally tipped her head into looking over him, her shoulders lagging low into the boyish pouted pressing of his lips as he held her eyes. "Well played, President. Very smooth."

"Not playin', love." Not touching her burned on him, keeping space from what he wanted rubbed the wrong way on his skin, but the way she was looking at him so unexplainably assuredly trapped on his nerves, "Want you at Jackson's tonight. Armed. Put that badge to use, huh?"

She nodded into the way she crossed her arms into the length of her torso, eyes sparking up with a tint of teasing, "Wanna kiss me?"

"Very much." He breathed off quietly as he looked over the length of her, swallowing another round of air into his lungs as he let his eyes follow the long run of her throat.

The lift of her jaw met the upturn of his. "You're not allowed."

"You're wrong, Althea." The sudden forward press of his body brought him drastically closer, tightening the way she was wrapped around herself as he neared, "I happen t'be the only one allowed to kiss you."

"Not here." Ally slowly shook her head in a whispered warning.

"Try me." He bantered back lightly before his exhalation dropped his tone into a graze of unshifting control, "Don't bait me, darlin' I don't give a shit who's watchin'."

She absolutely believed him. There was always a telling vacancy to his voice when he was intentionally lying – and there was always a warm threading weight to his voice when he was being truthful.

"Patterson was in my office this morning while we were in the shower." She murmured into a quieted dip of her eyes, shoulders shrugging into a slight loss, "Spent forty minutes on the phone trying to bullshit my way through - "

"And I told you to tell her the truth." The shift away of his steps echoed louder off his boots than she'd expected as he turned back into the base of the window. "Best lies are always mostly true."

"It's not that easy." There was a forward swaying to her frame that proved a sort of twisted up confusion in her, her step drawing closer to him even if she hadn't intended to draw so close.

"Sure I can make it that easy." His hips angled nearer hers as he tipped his head, his tongue laying along his bottom lip as he blinked low down over her lips.

"Filip, stop it." The trepidation in her lungs wrapped around the way she spoke, strangling the concerned stalling as she shook her head. "It's my job."

"And now I think y'mean it, Lieutenant." He smiled into a slowly tacit agreement, letting his hands curl into his pockets as his shoulders laid back into the window frame, "Come to the house. Y'can watch over the boys. Hap can watch me. I can watch over you."

"You just can't help the Technicolor-rainbow Brigadoon bullshit, can you?" There was still a warring in copper bright eyes and he watched it battled through. "It slays me."

"Althea?" A wickedly wild smile dimpled into his scars as he lifted his fingers between them, considering his words before tipping her a glance, "There's gonna be a day I kiss you right here, in front of Christ and every one. Whether y'like it or not."

"Stop flirting with me." She whispered into smiling, watching him as he moved by her, his fingers brushing along the ride of her belt.

He clipped the door open tightly with a shrug, "Stop pretending it doesn't work. And stop makin' Quinn wait in the sun. It's addling up his brain."

"Be careful, please." She softened after him, catching the way it stalled him half through the door before he flexed his fingers against the handle and started pulling it shut behind him. "I mean it."

"I know you do." He nodded as he gave her a gentled glance. "See ya later?"

"Yes." She smiled agreement into the grin he gave her as he tugged the door closed up behind him.


	20. Chapter 20

She blatantly ignored the arched glance of amused surprise he raised over her as she lit the joint, sucking down smoke into her lungs and holding it there before she let her back relax into an exhale, "What do you make of the Irish? Huh, Quinn?"

"Prez doesn't say much." He shifted his shoulders back shruggingly into her kitchen chair, watching as she continued on through the kitchen and tugged open the fridge, his eyes shading her movements, "Not my place to repeat what he does say anyhow."

"You too, huh?" She was shaking her head into another exhale, leaned against the open door as she stared at its contents, "You hungry?"

"Nope."

Ally turned a backwards glance into him, "This is awkward. You realize that?"

"Don't think it's awkward." He shrugged his large shoulders, "Think it's redundant considering you're carrying a licensed semi automatic."

"Thank you." She let her forearms lean onto the top of the open refrigerator door, shaking her head slowly, "Would you tell him that?"

"Nope." He grinned at her in pent amusement. "He only worries about three things, Sheriff."

"Ally."

"Lieutenant." Quinn just grinned the correction as he leaned his elbows forward onto her table, "The club, those kids, his girls."

"His girls?" she shifted into drawing down another suck of tinted smoke, using her heel to shunt the fridge door closed.

"Of which, you are one."

Ally searched quietly over the large man, smiling into the way his frame seemed to dwarf her moderately sized kitchen table. There was a telling amusement quirking his lips but a seriousness in his eyes that she held onto for a moment, exhaling into the way it softened toward concern as he held her glance. She shifted forward and into the chair opposite him, silently drawing the ashtray toward her as she slicked her tongue against her lips and shook her head slowly.

"I'm not as sure of that as you are, Quinn." She flicked ash into the tray, the deep and musky scent of the weed welling between them as he tipped her a cocked glance.

"Seemed sure of it before." An uncomfortable shifting flanked over his shoulders as he dropped a glance to her hand. "When you - "

"No." she shook her head quickly into a flushed up smile, "I've never been sure of him. Why do you think that happened?"

Quinn lifted a grin in her direction, "Because you're an exhibitionist? And you have emotional issues which lead to you searching out men who are equally emotionally unstable."

Ally blinked over him as the joint started to gutter a little, "You think he and I are unstable?"

"I think you're a blade and a whetstone." A smirking painted over his lips as he shifted his palms against his knees, "We gotta go or he's gonna get pissed."

Ally shook her head slowly as she wiped the joint into the tray, crushing it out as he stood and shifted from the table, "Rane Quinn, Redwood Original's Poet Laureate."

"Lieutenant," he was already heading for her front door, the Reaper facing her as she watched his movements, "sometimes you need to be reminded that we're still real people under the cuts. Maybe then you'd be a little more sure of all of us."

* * *

><p>"She called you, didn't she?"<p>

Chibs matched him with a grin as their hands caught them into a leaning, the both of them already aiming toward the booth in the back. "Called me a fuckin' fool, yeah. Some things never change."

Malone nodded as they loosened off each other and split, the Irishman waving toward the man behind the bar as Happy and TO stretched to the stools opposite the booth. Chibs sat easily onto the booth seat, letting tensed and tired shoulders lax back into the high wooden back as he let his eyes rest on the way Connor gave him a cautious shrugging of obvious concern and speechlessness.

"Stop worryin', Con." He nodded a slow smile, keeping his body forecfully laxed and loose as he shrugged. "It's gonna be fine."

"Y'seem very sure of that."

"One word." He dipped his head lower. "Kerrianne. M'not gonna start a pissin' match and you know that."

"He's stalkin' us, Filip." Connor's eyes had darkened farther than usual.

Chibs just slaked a grin over his lips that laid more feral than genial, "Aye. So don't give him much to look at. Calm and easy. Business as usual."

"Can you find him?" the other man's voice hashed lower, his jaw dipping. "Track him?"

Telford let the smile draw even wider, "I suppose we'll find that out, yeah?"

* * *

><p>He caught his fingers into TO's leather, dragging the man's sure steps slower and catching them even at the elbows. There was a legitimate look of confusion gracing the other man's face as he looked up, his hands still dug into his pockets as his steps slowed to match Telford's.<p>

Chibs leaned a little tighter. "Y'still have just as many connections as I do, former President."

"That's… yeah, that's bullshit." TO tossed him a shrugging smile, "But some, yeah."

"Need you to go looking for an Irishman without looking like you're looking."

"Need the black man to be suspicious and surreptitious?" there was a humored flippancy to the younger man's voice that drew their eyes back toward each other even as they continued moving toward their bikes.

The cocked glance Chibs gave him was a mingling of surprised humor and haunting seriousness. "Can't have it look like I'm shifting left, right or middle, TO. Need you to talk to the old crew."

"Why not have Alvarez go looking?"

Telford turned a sharp jerk of his head, "Marcus is too close. And I don't want it to bleed over onto our legitimate holdings, get me? Not askin' Tyler. He's got too much on his hands trying to hold his own weight right now."

"Yeah, I get it." TO nodded as they neared the bikes, chewing against the inside of his cheek before another nod back toward his President. "I can meet up with some of the guys for a beer."

"Good." Chibs flashed him a broad grin, "Have a round or two for me."

"Not sure I can match your reputation, Prez." TO tagged his helmet up from his bike with a swinging of humor, "But I'll sure as shit try."

* * *

><p>"Heya, AJ." Tig's legitimately comfortable grin was the first warmth to find her as she stepped through the door Quinn had swung open for her, his hands powdered white and lifted in the air while a perfectly clean and unused towel sloped his shoulder. "Caught me white powdered, Sheriff."<p>

"It's just flour." Venus' lofty tone lifted up from behind him, brightening from the other side of the kitchen as she tipped a knife along an onion repeatedly. "And he's an incorrigible child in a grown man's body."

"Yeah." Tig shrugged as he turned back to the table, wiping a line of white along Abel's cheek as the boy wiped letters into the flour that had been dumped and spread over wax paper. "Plus we keep the blow in Tommy's diaper bag."

"Makin' pizza." Abel told her as he lifted a flour covered palm and she ignored Trager's earlier taunt.

"From scratch, huh?" Ally stepped into the way he was leaning his hand up her way, dropping hers with a quick grin so that he could slap against her palm and laugh into the flux of powder that billowed between them. "And you're letting Tigger help? That's dangerous."

She caught the shrugging the boy gave her before he bent back into scrawling letters through the flour, turning her head up into the way Trager was wiping his hands clean onto the towel. There was a shifting of something warm on his face, a near affection that had his eyes seeming brighter. Ally just smiled into it as she shrugged her shoulders loosely, hands tucking into the pockets of her jeans.

"Wendy?" She questioned into the way he was watching her amusedly.

"Living room. Tommy finally knocked himself out about an hour ago. If she doesn't make any sudden movements he may actually sleep for another twenty minutes."

"That bad, huh?" she asked as she passed him, leaning sideways into the counter as she turned a glance over the long darkness of Venus' hair, smiling as she tipped her glance over the vegetables sprawled along the counter. "Need a hand?"

"Angel," Venus lifted her the knife as she blinked and stepped back on a heel, "if you're offering this damsel assistance, this onion is your primary duty. It's ruining my mascara."

She snorted out a laugh and ducked her hands under the faucet, scrubbing dish soap into them and rinsing before she took the knife, angling into the space the other woman had been in. The pass of Venus' hand against her back was far more comforting than she'd expected it to be, the smile she was wearing curving wider as the other woman leaned beside her with a lifted jaw and a searching look. Abel's laughter tripped up behind them and Ally just let her head angle to the side even as she kept sight of what she was doing.

"What?"

Venus shrugged a glance over her, "You look lovely, Althea."

"I'm wearing jeans and a Henley." Jarry murmured as she shook her head.

"But let's thank the heavens that it's not that god awful uniform." Venus leaned against her quietly, "You look softer with your hair down. I knew there was a beautiful woman in there somewhere, Lieutenant. You should let her out to play more often."

Ally just rolled her eyes in amusement as Venus turned from her, already brightly chiding both Trager and the boy for making a mess.

* * *

><p>He'd given the child a wink and lifted his fingers to his lips, catching the way Abel grinned a nodding agreement even as Chibs wiped against his hair and bent a kiss to him. The boy was dumping chopped peppers onto one of the pizzas that had been rolled out along the table and Chibs gave him another swift nod of approval before turning away from him and Trager's bright eyes. He let a long groaning break off his throat as he studied the tilted and straight backed way she was hip leaned into the sink doing dishes, her hair dumped dark and silken down her shoulders. The shirt was tight along the stroke of her shoulders and waist and the jeans were just low enough to flare her hips a little. And the sweep of the day didn't matter much when he let his glance linger down the back of her, leaning forward even as he kept a long looking over her ass.<p>

"I heard that, Scotty." The shut off of water was a sharp echo to her quiet words and he let the groaning noise stroke louder into the way he curved up behind her, pressing her flush between his hips and the break of the counter.

"You have," his hands had already curved around her waist and up her stomach, fingers closing against her breasts as he wedged a whisper along her neck and his chest into the spread of her back, "a fantastic ass, Lieutenant. Where's your weapon?"

"In my bag." Regardless of his intentional dominance she sighed into the run of his mouth along her neck, head angling to let his tongue swipe skin as her eyes dropped closed. "Where's yours?"

He nipped his teeth against her ear lightly, drawing a barely breathed sound off her lips as her hands went still in searing water, "She's right here."

"Filip."

He couldn't not smile into the way his name broke off her lips as her cheek turned into the way he was lifting his lips. It sounded less like surrender and more like a gift of welcome.

"Need your help, Chibby." Trager's voice had his hands dragging back down against her stomach and pelvis, keeping her flush to the front of him but turning his head sidelong in silent answering. "The Manly Pizza needs more sausage."

"You two are shameless." She muttered into his snort of laughter as he leaned off her and turned toward where they were layering toppings on two different uncooked pizzas. "Wash your hands first, Telford."

He lifted his hands into the way Abel was laughing at him, back-stepping toward the sink with an arched glance, "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

><p>"Nothin' here I didn't already know." Chibs murmured, one hand flipping the paperwork she'd dropped along the cleanly wiped table, his glasses perched on his nose as he frowned and paused the movement, "Hello, 'cept that."<p>

"The Federal investigation?" she asked quietly, setting the open beer to the table in front of him as Tig leaned closer from the other side, leaning over the papers as well.

"Aye." Chibs nodded tightly before tugging the glasses off as he lifted his head, sending a searching glance over her, "Why you showin' me this?"

"Gift horse. Mouth." Tig murmured as he tugged the report on Gaige toward his side of the table, reading over it with a squinting "Don't give her shit, Chibby."

"I mean it." The Scot lifted his jaw into the way she was angling a look over the stretch of his body back in the kitchen chair. "You don't just give me information, darlin'."

"There's nothing pertinent left in that report that you could use to perpetuate a crime, Scotty." Ally let her shoulders lift as she started to step back to the counter, aiming to clean up the counter when his fingers stretched into her jeans, hooking into denim and tugging her still. "It's basically public information."

"Bullshit." He lifted his jaw higher into a squinting, dropping his glasses to the table top before he curled both hands to her legs and forcefully pulled her between his knees. "Don't believe mention of a Federal investigation is generally public information."

"He's not small time, Filip." Her voice cut cleanly over the both of them as his fingers curled the outsides of her thighs. "He's legitimately more dangerous than you led me to believe."

The slimming of his eyes preceded the way he banked a slow glance toward Trager's open glance, an inhalation drawn in through his nose before he blinked back up at her slowly, "Makin' a point then? We're already aware."

"My point?" she ignored the way Tig was averting his glance back to the report, leaning away from her tone as he removed himself from the discussion, "My point is that he's a fucking sniper rifle in a knife fight, Filip."

"I know that, Althea." His tone cranked lower as he leaned his shoulders forward, letting his fingers dig fisted into denim. "Why y'think I set Quinn on ya? There are five armed people in this house right now. I am not new at this, love."

"You know him." She angled an aiming toward the report. "Is he going to let you do this? Just walk away? Because I'm not - "

"Tig." Chibs lifted his head into the interruption, his hands so roughly dug into her that she could feel her muscles twitch into his jerked pulling. "Gimme a minute, yeah?"

"Okay, but I'm takin' this." Trager lifted the report as he shoved up from the table, palming it to his chest as he passed her, "Don't kill each other. Innocent children and all."

She turned an angrily panning look over him, her hands avoiding the stroke of his and bracing along her hips as he blinked at her. Chibs scraped his teeth along his bottom lip and shook his head, tugging harshly against the backs of her knees and forcing her roughly down into him. Her spine jammed straight even as she shifted her legs straddling against him, palms shoving back into his shoulders in a response to his roughness. A flicker passed through the dark of his eyes as he let his body slack back in the chair, fingers grazing against her stomach before he reached lazily for the bottle in continued silence, swigging hard against it.

"He's dangerous." She hushed over him as he settled the bottle back to the table with an obvious weight.

"Why'd you show me that?" he blinked up at her in thorough scrutiny. "It changes nothing, Ally. M'not bending on this. No business."

"I don't give a shit about business, Filip." The heels of her palms jacked ever harder into the leather at his shoulders, "I give a shit about you getting hurt."

She didn't have time to regret the admittance before it drew a silent and curving smile over his lips, his head angling to the side as he wiped against his beard and leaned his elbow into the table, head laying into his hand. The other fingers tucked into the fabric of her shirt, keeping her close even as she shifted uncomfortably under his smirking.

"Why do you think they're sending him, Althea?" he shook his head slowly on a brittle smile.

"Because you're a jackass and they're taking care of my light work."

"Because I'm dangerous too, love. And y'know it." He dipped into a thready seriousness, ignoring her sarcasm as his face went paling bitter. "You know that, in your head. Y'choose to ignore it."

"I'm not ignoring it." She admitted into a sadness, following the worn dark leather with her fingers so that she could wipe against the President patch. "I'm…"

"Ignoring it." He finished softly as he pulled at her shirt, drawing her farther down into his chest.

Ally exhaled slowly, tipping her head back and forth, "I'm not ignoring it. I'm trying to accept it. You don't ignore a man who threatens to have you killed."

"Christ." He tugged her close by the shirt, digging the fabric into the curling of his hand, "Y'really need to let it go."

"Never." She hissed into the drop of her lips against his, kissing softly against him before she lifted her head over his.

A mischievous smirking layered his lips as her hair brushed against him, "Worried about me, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Are you, Ally?" he breathed out as he curled his hands against her ass and dragged her farther into his lap. "Tell me."

"You know I am." Her nails raked on leather in frustration. "You know it."

"I know." He agreed in a tone less haughty and more apologetic, lifting his fingers to wipe down her hair. "It's gonna be fine."


	21. Chapter 21

There was a framing of legitimate comfort around him, something nearly relaxing weighing down in the overly warm living room. Her laying long into him and Tig directly across from him, eyes bright to his. The closeness of the both of them at once suddenly a near peacefulness he hadn't touched hands to in more than a month. And he kept lacing his fingers through dark hair, regardless of the way it made Trager half smirk as he leaned forward from the coffee table.

"Not likin' how lengthy that report was." Tig's voice lowered into a braced worry, his whispering broaching that supposed environment of domesticity.

"I told you, Tigger." He hushed back just as softly, his glance thinning toward sincerity as he dipped his head forward.

"I know." The older man's hand lifted from between his knees, the heel of his palm rubbing into his forehead tiredly. "Just, thinkin' maybe this should be shut up at Red Woody. Bring everyone in, ya know?"

Chibs lifted a shoulder in consideration, letting his glance tip as he curled a lay of dark hair off her face and back into the stroked length of the rest of it. "Let's see what TO finds. No reason to rattle everyone til needed. Not so soon. Don't necessarily wanna go to ground quite yet, either."

"Make some calls?" Tig offered in a slight shifting of his back, rolling his shoulders in a show of the way they were too tight toward aching. "Put everybody on alert?"

"If they aren't already." Chibs murmured agreement. "He'll come to me, Tiggy. He'll pass over Connor. This isn't about us leaving Malone in charge. It's about us being disrespectful."

"That's why I'm thinking - "

"I don't want him thinking he's got us runnin'." Telford clipped between them, frowning into the way his rise in tone had drawn her shifting in her sleep, his palm curling along her throat and stilling there until her body settled. "Bring it to church tomorrow. We'll lay it all out, okay? See where everyone's at."

"Yeah, all right." Tig wiped against his face again before pressing up from his perch on the table.

Chibs caught against his fingers, letting their hands link loosely then part in a silent goodbye, his eyes following the slow movements of the other man as he headed for the kitchen. He let his fingers stroke the stretch of her throat before he sluiced them through the darkness of her hair, keeping it tugged back off her face as he angled a look down over the way she was stretched along his thigh.

"You can stop pretending you're asleep." He murmured into the way he curved a fingertip along her ear.

"Well, I was." Her palm cradled up between her cheek and his leg, the back of her head leaning into his groin as he traced through her hair again. "That why you shut him up?"

"Aye." He offered the plain truth quietly over her. "Plain tired of talkin' too. Miss having quiet."

There was a smile cradled along her lips as she stretched, rounding the back of her head into the tensed muscle of his thigh, her hand rising to catch against his, "Sometimes I think he trusts me more than you do."

"And he doesn't have t'meet your pretty eyes at the end of the day, Lieutenant." He let her rub against his rings, holding his hand above her as she stroked her long fingers between his and closed their palms together. "Did I not just say something about wantin' quiet time?"

The smile peaked wider along her lips as he clenched his palm, the rings biting into her as she let her eyes lay closed. The shift of his other hand was a quick thrust of movement, digging under her head and clasping into the dark of her hair as he lifted and forced her into a shifting that drew up her shoulders. Ally grumped a noise into him, annoyed until he angled her higher into his chest and curved a kissing down into her lips that swallowed the sound she made. He shifted slightly into the corner of the couch, laying her farther sideways into him with a sure and quick movement of his palm, the other hand still curled up into her pulling fingers.

"I trust you, Althea." He grazed the words along her jaw. "Keepin' business out from between us makes it simple to keep trustin'. Plausible deniability."

"That's bullshit." She countered even as she kept her voice softened, letting herself curl into the warm cotton of his black shirt as he dug his hand deeper into the depth of her hair.

"It's not. It's sound thinking."

"I meant you trusting me." She murmured as she dragged his fist into the center of her chest and curled tighter around their closed hands. "Not completely."

"Complete trust is a myth, darlin'." He was wrapping her back into his chest, nose brushing into her hair. "You want a fairy tale? M'not your prince."

"No, just a king." She taunted as her nails pressed into the center of his palm, head lifting into the slowly derisive glance he gave her. "Of pussy and porn. Legalized marijuana and ice cream. And very pretty bikes."

The pinch he laid into her side as she haughtily smirked teased a laughing off her as he growled annoyance into the side of her head.

"Hey," her laughter chipped her tone higher, brighter, "I love weed and ice cream."

"Funny." He nipped against her bottom lip as he dug her tighter, "I love pussy and porn."

She groaned her mouth hard into his, letting her tongue lace along his before she drew her head back. "I love a man on a bike."

"Yeah?" Filip flicked her a lidded glance, letting his teeth run his bottom lip as his head tipped a fraction nearer to pressing hers, "Which one?"

A slipping panic nearly paled her face as she jerked back from his leaning, her head minutely tipping into an accusatory questioning as she met his glance and exhaled quietly, lips parted into a speechlessness he hadn't previously trusted could exist.

"Thought so." He grinned into the whisper before his hand braced roughly into the back of her head, kissing her chastely before he drew back with a brashly smug wink.

"You bastard." She breathed out, the curling of her fingers in his digging down hard enough that even he could feel the way his rings were ridging against her more delicate bones.

"Sure, and from what I can tell, y'love those too."

"I'm not in love with you, Filip." Her voice was an intentionally dragged under whisper, drowned choking in its own self doubt and unconscious haziness. "Not yet."

That same wicked smile met her as he jerked their joined hands higher, laying his tongue along her wrist and drawing her into a stalemate of movement as he blinked up dark and clearly knowing eyes, "Your eyes blacken up when you lie to me, love."

The peacefully soft wipe of his cheek was bristled heat against tensed skin and she let her eyes close into the suddenly seemingly safe curling of his hands, "So stop looking."

"Stop fighting me." His lips hand twice the warmth of his hands and they always managed to singe her past embattled, especially when they moved so softly. "I will always win, Althea."

"That another threat?" her head tipped an angle over his, letting her hair curtain them closer toward locked stillness, the heat of his mouth sucking her pulse to the surface of her skin.

"No." His smile was suddenly less taunting as it wiped off her wrist, serving her a fraction of tacit and simplistic honesty, "That's fact, darlin'."

* * *

><p>He'd watched the boy's sleepy entrance into the living room, both his small hands curled and twisted up into the front of his pajama shirt as bright eyes swung confusedly through the darkened living room. And even as he'd lifted his head, watching the child pause in the doorway, he'd felt her urging palm along his forearm, her long fingers squeezing against the stretch of his shirt before wiping off cotton. His fingers stroked off the overly warm heat of her as he shifted from under the way she was stretched out into him, lagging tired muscles into the slow way he stepped across the room.<p>

"Hi." Abel murmured into the drop of the man's hands against his sides.

"Come on then." Chibs scooped the boy up easily, swinging the child into his chest as he aimed his steps back down the darkened hall, exhaling into the way Abel clung against him with prying fingers. "We're still smack in the middle of sleepin' hours, boyo."

"Don't wanna." There was such a strong pouting to the boy's tone, so contrarily jousted between them even as the child dropped his chin to a leather covered shoulder.

Chibs made an understanding noise of supposed agreement quietly in his throat, nodding before he shrugged, his steps leading back into the boy's room, "How can you help Wendy with Tommy tomorrow if y'don't get any sleep, huh?"

"Don't wanna go."

He smiled a surprise into how tightly tiny little fingers could hold into worn in leather, the boy's hands gripped so drastically digging on him that he just turned his hips back into the bed, leaning his boots off the side as he stretched out along the small mattress. Chib's lifted his head back, aiming a glance over the way the boy relaxed a bit into the realization that he wasn't being left alone.

"And why not?" he lifted his palm into a soft stroking against the side of the boy's head, letting his back relax into the low headboard. "Nothin' to be scared of. I promise."

Abel gave him a pouted shrugging, ducking his head as he leaned back into Telford's chest on a whining noise of sleepy annoyance.

Chibs dipped a glance over the child's obviously unhappy silence, wiping comfort into sweat warmed pajamas, "You go if I go? No trouble? And straight to sleep, huh?"

Abel shrugged a nodding into him, still grasping into the cut as he leaned his full cheek against leather and squeezed his bright eyes shut. "Uhkay."

* * *

><p>He'd watched her leave, leaning quiet in the window as the sounds of the house had stirred louder and more childishly brightened. Abel's voice carried every inch of his age and the brash attitude he was slinging Wendy's way as he tried to delay their inevitable leaving. And Chibs had partly enjoyed listening to it, smirking amusement into each yelping argument the boy rattled her way. He shared the most recent smile with the way Trager had silently moved into the living room, a still sleeping Thomas laid up onto his shoulder as he hummed a soothing sound through his throat to keep some semblance of calm.<p>

Chibs lifted his fingers, drawing the other man toward the window before wiping against his face, elbow laying into the frame as Tig tipped a glance out it as well. "Block up. Gray sedan."

"Got a tail, huh?" Tig's long fingers hand cradled against the back of the boy's hand, rings catching light as he near instantly turned his back to the window in unconscious guarding. "That was fast."

"Not really." Telford shook his head slowly, jaw inching up quietly, "Here before I was last night. Been sittin' since then."

"You sure?" Trager asked as he put more space between himself and the window, boots hushing against carpet.

Chibs nodded tightly, pressing away from the window with a bite in his jaw, "I'm sure."

* * *

><p>Something about seeing the matte black leather riding over his shoulders at the base of the courthouse steps lifted a swill of bile up her throat, reminding her of Teller, and she took the steps down faster than she'd planned on heels, skimming fingertips off the railing as she forced a smile into the way Abel was watching her approach. The boy's hand was twisted up into the denim of Telford's pants, angling into the way Chibs was rubbing along the back of his head.<p>

"Hi." Her fingers stretched out to catch into his hair, a flinching in his bright eyes as he squinted at her in the sunshine, watching as she crouched before him. "Lookin' good, Teller. Nice shirt."

"Wendy made me wear it." Abel groused at her as he dropped his chin to his chest, studying the white button down shirt that was messily tucked into his pants.

"You look nice." Ally gave him a quick wink, leaning tighter forward to wipe against his nose as she smiled. He responded with a shied up glancing before shrugging into acceptance, letting his whole body slant a leaning into the Scot's leg.

"Flirt." Chibs murmured as he dropped his gloved hand, catching into her fingers as she pressed up and flicked him a lidded glance of amusement. He was laying a look over her that went warm along with the deepened way the sun tinted his eyes, sunglasses slung down along his throat.

She gave him the same smile but blinked into it as she tripped her fingers against his upper arm and shifted, lifting her jaw into the way Wendy was a step aside, Thomas on her hip, "Any questions? Anything you need to tell me?"

"Not that I know of." The blonde shrugged it off, face intentionally blanked but veering toward defensively aggressive. "Maybe that I wanna throw up."

"It's gonna be fine." Ally murmured as she shook her head into a lagging smile, catching and fighting the temptation to stretch into the way the Scot's heat had leaned longer and tighter into her arm. "I can call when they're done."

"I'm comin' with."

"No," her jaw lifted tightly into the way he was slanting an intentionally intimidating leaning along her side, the lush brown of his eyes trapped over the equal richness of her downed hair, "you are not."

"Althea - "

"I said no." she turned her head into a counter angle to his, matching the rich darkness of the way he was looking at her before dropping her tone to a rigid hush, "That patch is the last goddamn thing they need to see behind those boys right now and you know it."

He let a twitch ride the left corner of his mouth before biting his jaw onto a gritting, head turning away from her as he lifted a sort of silent agreement. "So I'll take it off."

Ally let her shoulders dip into a sympathetic tipping, her fingers catching into his shirt to lean him back, "Filip, you are the patch. You have a very pretty and very recognizable face, okay?"

"I am especially pretty." He shrugged a supposedly blasé glance back down the front of her.

Ally gave him a quick smirking before tugging against his shirt affectionately and loosening her fingers from it, her hand dropping to catch along Abel's shoulder. She wiped into the white cotton as she tipped a glance down, offering the child another softened smile. Her palm sloped down into the way Chibs was prying small fingers from his pants and lifting the small sweated palm into hers.

"Stay with Ally. Don't you leave her." He hazed off over the child, his hand brushing off theirs before he wiped against his face and matched her glance, "Call TM. The boys'll come out."

"Not necessary." Wendy murmured the unarguable interruption. "I'll just call Nero."

"Where are you going?" Ally angled sharply into him, intentionally stalling any argument he may have had with the other woman, fingertips rubbing a slow comfort into the thin weight of Abel's wrist.

"Out." He turned his jaw closer to hers, intentionally leading another long look down the front of a sleek silken shirt and black skirt, her badge fold slung on a lanyard down the center line of her. "That's not what you were wearing when you left this morning. Y'look untouchable, Lieutenant."

She arched him a half smile into the tipping of her head, "Thigh holster, Scotty."

A grin racked up on his lips and he licked along his bottom lip, shaking his head into the smirking she was aiming his way, gaze shifting possessively back down the way the skirt wrapped on her hips and legs, "Right or left?"

"If you can't tell, I'm not telling." She blinked him a taunting glance, her teeth grazing her bottom lip as he forced himself still from leaning closer.

He patiently watched her lead Abel toward the steps, Wendy flicking him a tightened glance that he nodded smiling into as she followed. His glance tipped between all of them, head lagging longing into the cleanly immaculate surety of her as she spoke sideways to Abel. Her words were lost to him but he let his shoulders slacken as he watched her draw the boy up the flight of stairs, feeling his lungs clamp into the sudden broad space between them.

The separation of his stillness from their forward momentum of innocence made him suddenly hot flushed in the sun and he dragged his glasses up and on, frowning as he dropped a glance to his boots and drew the cigarettes from his pocket. And the more wholesome grace of her leading Wendy and the children higher and farther away while he wallowed in the place Jackson had murdered Marks certainly wasn't lost on him, the lighter palmed in his hand as he pieced a cigarette between his lips and turned his head back up to watch the sunlight copper color her hair lighter.

He swallowed a rise of smoke into the remembering of his accusation, the implication that she needed to be prepared to be the Reaper's milder mercy. Watching the sure movement of her snapped the reality of her response into place in his brain, so suddenly starkly true in the way she caught his glance only briefly as she held the door for them. She was correct. In a strange and unexpectedly right way, she very well was.


	22. Chapter 22

"I got it." He nodded a slow assurance into the way Trager's long and lanky form had stacked into all shoulders and tensed arms, his helmet gripped dangerously tightly into his rigged palm. "Relax, Tiggy."

"Not leavin' you on your own with him." The older man argued with a flat blue glance, his face so righteous in its protective fury that Chibs couldn't help swaying an appreciative and affectionate glance between them.

"You're not." Chibs shrugged as he braced his boots flat to the driveway, patting lighter fingers into Trager's chest. "You're just leavin' a little space. Gimme a minute, okay? I know him, know his ways. You don't."

"You sure about this, Chibby?" Tig murmured a grazing confusion between them.

"Can't be all that unsure if he's standin' in the yard waiting, now can I?" Telford shrugged into a wearied sighing, his palm pressing flat to keep the other man still as he backed his boot steps toward the grass. "You just stay close, huh?"

Tig nodded sharply into the way his hands broached along his hips, keeping his shoulders braced up as he balanced on flat boots. The Scot smiled between them before turning in the direction Trager had been staring, drawing his steps slowly into the heat choked grass as he neared the tall and lanky blonde that was waiting for him. There was a clean dark suit and a layer of age over the man that surprised the smile off his lips, lungs loosening as Gaige lifted open palms in a sort of peaceful leaning.

"Can see why you've stayed so long." The other man's tipping accent was dulled to sweetened, quieted as he lifted his face, "Sun's divine, Filip."

"You could use some color, Cal." He searched slowly over the younger man's face, cataloging age and the learned sharpness that had angled the thin and paled face.

"Well, why ruin this perfection with a melanoma, huh?" Gaige was still tipping back in the sun, his long hand waving up from the way he'd crossed his arms over the tuck of his suit jacket. "You knew I was comin'."

"Knew your boys were here already. They're not all that - "

"Intelligent?" A manic blue eyed grinning brightened the pale of the other man's face, giving his cheeks color as his eyes finally dropped over the way Telford was standing loosely across from him.

"Clandestine." Filip smiled cautiously into the correction, waving a hand toward the steps as he studied the even and toned musculature that had drawn up the shoulders of the man's suit, the rest of him still just as long and gawky as he remembered.

"Ah." The younger of the two shifted his steps sidelong into the way they evenly turned toward the house, his head angling back to match the way Trager was watching their movements with a hesitant shifting, "Agreed. Expected more of your crew to meet me."

"Do I need them?" Chibs dropped himself onto the step, intentionally relaxing himself as he lifted his cigarettes and tugged one out, offering one to the Irishman. "Didn't expect I would, considering it's you standin' on Jackson's front grass."

"You underestimate me, then? Maybe so?" Callum was suddenly all smiling blonde and pale, looking sharpened up in the way the blue of his eyes went slate.

"Maybe I overestimate our friendship." Chibs shrugged loosely and pocketed the pack, lighting the one he'd drawn in a feigning of unconcern.

"Friendships are such wispy things, Filip." There was a drawing of sadness to the other man's taunting tone, his body considerably more cautious as he glanced over the step and leaned to sit along side the older man. "They get torn up so easily."

Filip sucked down the twist of smoke, focusing on the blank nothing of the empty street before them, "I wasn't pullin' on anything."

"You been killin' Kings and breakin' my heart all along the way." Accusation slapped tightly between them before the younger man turned him a slow glance, his exhalation preceding the slow softness of his leaning, "Devastated to hear about Paddy. Seein' that boy's face always had me day dreamin' of Caity again."

Chibs cocked him a sheared warning glance at the mention of his sister and her son, his jaw tamping tightly on a swallow before he blinked, voice hushing tentative, "Dreamin' of Cait is all she'd ever let y'do, huh?"

"All because of you." There was a telling tip of familiar almost laughter to the other man's tone and it ached him hard toward feeling young again.

"Naw, because of you. She knew you and I were too alike." Filip murmured into the strangely stunted shift back and forth between familiarity and threat, "Jackson was the one drawing down Kings, Callum. And he's found an end. You don't see me stirrin' up shit on this end. Been straight and even with Connor."

"Connor's a weasely little shite."

"True." Chibs agreed tightly into an exhale, letting his tongue ride along his bottom lip as he nodded, "Always has been."

"You pullin' his strings, Filip?" The damning in the other man's searingly soft accent was enough to draw their glances together, the both of them staring into a tainted seriousness.

"Told ya. I'm not pullin' on a damn thing." Chibs murmured defensively, failing at reminding his body to stay passive as his shoulders drew up from their slant.

Gaige nodded slowly, his eyes chipping brighter as he smirked, "Maybe because of Kerrianne."

He nodded sharply into the implication, "Exactly because of Kerrianne. She's a good girl. Doesn't have all that much to do with her da and y'know it."

"Fi's been bowin' to Priests." The younger man's shifting was slow but intentionally placed, drawing him up to stand and turn over Telford, his hands shearing down the front of his suit as he dipped grayed eyes down. "Buying her indulgences and graces."

"And always ever loyal to the cause. Y'know that too." Chibs lifted the mostly guttered cigarette into aiming before dropping it below his boot to wipe it out.

"I do." Long fingers lifted again into a sort of agreement, "Got no desire to see those girls hurt, Filip. Fiona's pulled my ass from a sizable fire most recently."

Chibs swallowed into the shake of his head, pushing up from the step as he let his hand wipe against his beard. He caught the slowly made way Tig was moving a few steps closer in unconscious guarding, his eyes flicking back toward the blonde as he drew in another round of oxygen, attempting to level himself.

He shook his head slowly, angling tighter into the interested way Gaige was watching him bend into patience, "Then why push on me and not Connor? We put you where you are, boy. A dead king crowns a prince."

"There's a price, Filip." Cal's voice had guttered toward a tinted whisper.

"You think I haven't fucking paid it already?"

Patience was a thing he'd always had a fitful relationship with.

And it was flirting away from him too damn quickly.

The Irishman's head turned slowly toward Tig before angling back, "Can't just watch you walk away, Telford. You'll always come walkin' back and your hands are never empty."

"They're empty now. No more." Filip argued into a hashed quietness, "No guns, no running, no more blood."

"Filip." A smile that meant far more than an old friendliness graced the other man's thin lips, "There's a price. And you can work with me to pay the debt, or I'll decide the cost."

Chibs bit into a silence, keeping the blue of the other man's glance as they unconsciously tipped closer.

"And y'know I've always been better than you at maths." The strong line of the man's leaner jaw angled down, his hand suddenly rising so sharply in a blindly flat palmed stalling of Tig's movements that Chibs could sense the twitching of nerves between all of them. "You knew this day was comin' when you put Jimmy and O'Shay down."

Chibs turned a stilling glance toward his Vice President, exhaling into the minute shake of his head before he turned a grazing glance to meet grayed blue eyes, "Whatcha want, Gaige? Huh? Y'want me to sacrifice? I buried four people in a week. That enough sacrifice for you? How much does that tally in your ledger?"

"You'll allow dispensation for Sambel, at the least. They'll keep moving what we hand them if they want to keep whole. And you'll make that call before I see you again." The tall length of the blonde was already shifting backwards on slow steps, his hands once again lifted in a supposed peace, "We can discuss the rest over dinner."

"Not sitting at a table with you and discussing shit in public." Chibs shook off tightly, catching the way Tig finally finished closing long steps toward his side.

"Who said it would be public?" The laughing tone of the other man's voice kicked his jaw up in defense, "I'll be in touch. Consider this a reservation, yeah?"

"Keep this civil in the meantime, Gaige." Chibs lifted an aiming in his direction, feeling the swayed heat of Trager's closeness to his other arm. "Yes?"

"Of course, yes. I'll call Fiona myself. Put her to ease." The tripping of the woman's name was just another tweak to his frustration, his hands curled bracing as he watched Gaige's departure.

"And Connor?" he raised his voice into the questioning.

"He can stay for now." There was such a cool dismissive turn to the other man's hand that Chibs swallowed down hard, feeling his throat clench into the movement.

Tig's hard exhalation at his side echoed the relief of his own lungs, "So, that went well."

"Cocky son of a bitch." Telford graced his hand over his face, "And that's why I never let him near my sister."

* * *

><p>At first she ignored the glancing that Patterson gave her, tucking Abel's hand tighter into her own as he twisted his other hand into her skirt, his voice drawing her attention down as he tugged, "We done yet?"<p>

"Not even close, kiddo." She murmured, letting him pull against the fabric as Wendy snorted from beside her.

"Althea."

She blinked him a softened smile, slowly lifting her head into the familiar voice, "District Attorney."

"I saw that you'd signed off on the petitioning." Patterson offered all of them a placating smile as she lifted the folder that was prized up in her hand. "You don't mind if I sit in?"

"Not at all." she tipped between them with a forced lightness of tone, letting Abel lean hard weight into her wrist as he tugged and tipped his head along her forearm. "I've been working with Ms Case for a few days now."

"I wanted to offer my condolences." The shorter woman aimed toward Wendy and Ally could feel the tentative questioning the blonde banked between the two of them.

"Thank you." Wendy murmured in a sort of defensive blankness. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"District Attorney Patterson," Ally murmured between them, letting Abel twist his fingers up between hers as he tugged once again. "Wendy Case."

"It's good to finally meet you." Patterson offered with a too sweetened up smile.

"Yeah, you too." There was still an intentional distance to Wendy's stance and Ally appreciated the surreptitious space the other woman kept between them as she nudged Thomas higher on her hip.

"Ally." Abel's voice hashed up a whining.

"Not yet." She murmured down into his pulling. "Be patient, kiddo."

"You don't have a lawyer present, Ms Case." Patterson continued between them, her jaw lifting into a quieted authority. "The Lieutenant can't necessarily speak for you should this become… complicated."

"I have Ally Lowen on retainer, thank you." The sudden hard shifting of Wendy's body made her a straightened up line beside her and she appreciated the distinct shunting of distrust and attitude, "She assured me she'd weigh in if Lieutenant Jarry thought it was necessary."

"I see." Patterson flicked a knowing smile between the two of them, "Lowen hasn't practiced in this county in awhile. I'm surprised she'd take this on. Good for you. She's a wonderful attorney. Althea?"

"Yes, ma'am?" she smiled ruefully into the sudden tipping of Patterson's attention.

"I'll need some of your time later. Before you leave, yes?"

Ally blinked into a nodding agreement, swallowing frustration into her lungs, "Sure."

* * *

><p>She could feel the other woman's frustration in the tightness of their steps as they moved down the hall, Wendy's voice hashing low, "I don't understand why it's a temporary order."<p>

"Because we filed for an emergency hearing. This was just the hearing. It's given you a temporary custody until the trial." Ally explained into softness, intentionally keeping the words lightened in tone as Abel double timed his sneakered steps to keep up, "Don't worry, Wendy. It's nothing. It's just shifting paperwork. This is going to work, okay?"

"Do I need Lowen here?" the blonde leaned forward into the way she shifted Thomas from one side to the other, his fussing settling once she'd hushed her jaw along the side of his head, "She's sketchy about coming back."

She rolled her eyes into mild annoyance, "You tell her I'm personally guaranteeing her safety, okay?."

"As a cop or the new President's old lady?" the tinted flash of humor in the other woman's voice had her slowing her steps as they neared the outer offices.

"As the damn sheriff, Wendy. Jesus Christ." Ally turned them into pausing, her fingers loosening up on Abel's as he let himself lean into her leg, the very shift of his movement causing her to drop a surprised and ached glance down over him.

"And the new President's - "

"Don't you say it again in this building." She lifted up tightly, her eyes thinning darker as she met Wendy's glance, "Do you understand me? Not here."

The blonde lifted her head into a slowly murmured understanding, "Got it. Loud and clear, Lieutenant."

She shifted uncomfortably under the younger woman's suddenly amused and knowing scrutiny, rubbing her thumb against the back of the boy's small fingers before letting go of his hand. "I need to speak to Patterson. You'll wait for Nero?"

"Yeah." Wendy nodded as Thomas tugged his hand into her hair, riling the blonde waves up into his fingers, "That DA's up your ass, isn't she?"

"By a few yards, yeah."

"We'll wait for you instead then." Case nodded into a terse offer of solidarity. "Okay?"

"Okay." Ally smiled slowly, complicit in the way they held each other's eyes.

"Okay." Wendy set her hand out in the older boy's direction, waving her fingers at him with a nodding. "C'mon, Abel."

"Chibby said stay with Ally." He slapped the words out toward the younger woman quickly, his catching into the black of her skirt.

"Abel - "

"No." And the sharpness of his loudly pitched retort was enough to draw the attention of the others in the hall, snapping in an echo along the gray walls.

"Okay, hey." Ally tipped into a slow bend, catching his fingers from fabric and letting his palm curl up in hers as she gave him a broad smile. "Hi, gorgeous."

His eyes were even brighter than usual, face pinked up in emotion, "Chibs said - "

"Your uncle is so worried about you." She whispered the interruption slowly between them, tipping her head into the way she rubbed against his fingers.

"Because of daddy." He murmured without meeting the way she was looking at him.

"I know." She squeezed on his fingers. "But I need to talk to this lady by myself. Just a few minutes. You wait for me, okay? "

"Everyone leaves."

She ignored the emotionally voided tone of his voice, intentionally wiping her finger against his nose and tapping once with a forced smile, "Betcha I come back."


	23. Chapter 23

"Do you need a lesson on proximity, Ally?" The slapping accusation of the other woman's voice ratcheted past her and bounced against the door she'd closed up behind her. "My God."

Ally drew in a breath meant to breed patience, anything of humility that she could manage to muster, "Wendy Case is the safest, most responsible, and most logical - "

"Are you involved with that club?" the shorter woman was standing behind her desk, head lifted up in surety as her hand flexed spread fingers against the top of it. "Are you?"

"No. Of course not. Have I not - "

"Are you involved with the President of that club?" Patterson demanded into a tightness that had her shoulders drawing higher.

She couldn't help but blink into the unbending demand, her head shaking slowly back and forth into a quietness, "It's - "

"It's a 'yes' or 'no'." the repetition of interruption from Patterson's side of the desk was grating and chafing on her skin.

"Define 'involved'." She felt the tonal change of her voice and damn well couldn't help herself from enjoying the harsher break of it off her lips.

"Don't jerk me around, Althea." The District Attorney flicked her a quick glare before finally relaxing her limbs, letting her body shift back so that she could reach her chair forward and draw it under her. "Are you sleeping with him?"

The shift forward of the older woman's hand aimed toward the empty chair and Ally considered it a moment, considered breaking herself low into the other woman's scrutiny. It was always the sitting that had her feeling as though this was an inevitable and unavoidable punishment. It was always in this position that she lost any strength of confidence.

She bent into the chair anyhow, the tightness in her hands reminding her that she had to find a patience somewhere, "You know I have."

"Are you now?" Patterson's head angled into another layer of accusation.

She couldn't help the haughty smile twitching along her lips, "Right now?"

"Lieutenant."

Ally slowly lathed her head into a back and forth, forcing her tone to even off its slant of sarcasm and bend more toward agreement, "That has no bearing - "

"You are risking your career. Do I need to speak to your superiors about this?"

It wasn't necessarily just the threat that flicked a domino-tipping rattle of heat down her rigid spine.

It was the constant interruptions. The flaring impatience that kept cutting her down.

"I can make this work for you, Tyne. This is why you chose me." And she didn't realize how far forward she'd leaned a bracing palm into the top of the desk until Patterson's body slanted back in her own chair - but she damn well enjoyed the shunting shift in position. "Remember? This is why you begged me to come out here. Because of who I am and how I work. You called me and you put my ass right in the middle of this shitty little town."

"Althea - "

"Because I don't have the conscience you do. And I don't need the public's support to do my job. I don't give a shit what I have to sacrifice of myself to uphold the goddamn law." Her own interruption stirred up another sway of heat, breathing out into an indignation she didn't realize she'd been keeping locked in her lungs. "Have I ever, in my career, committed a felony against the State of California?"

"Not to my knowledge. I'm worried about what I'm not hearing about." The attorney murmured into a caged up sort of cattiness, "You're not talking to me anymore, Ally. Last time I knew you were worried that you were their newest target."

"What do you want from me? Daily reports?" Ally let her fingers off the desk as she shrugged her shoulder back into the chair, letting her muscles lax into a more casual position, "I'm trying to make this happen. Teller's death makes it easier. And Telford being where he is – that's a goddamn windfall. I can damn near prove to you that they're out of the gun business. Give me time."

Patterson drew in a long and slowly calculated breath, "Are they paying you off?"

"No."

And thank Christ she'd brokered an end to that.

He'd been horrifyingly and so very simply correct.

The very best of lies were made mostly by tautologies of truths.

The older woman withered her a thinner glance, "Have you participated in any criminal activities?"

"No." She repeated nearly smugly, intentionally keeping her jaw on an upturn.

"Are you involved in any club interaction with other criminal entities?"

Ally snorted into shaking her head, exhaling slowly, "No."

"Are you involved with the President of that club?"

"Yes." She shot up just as quickly and easily and the previous negations.

And there was actually a surprise flickering in the lawyer's dark eyes.

"Is it personal?" Tyne murmured into a near on softened concern.

"Fucking is generally very personal, District Attorney." She responded into a slow and even tone, keeping her voice just as softened but still tightly cured. "I just need more time."

"If you want more time, I want more information." Patterson demanded quietly, her head dipping into an unspoken implication of sorts. "As of yesterday."

* * *

><p>"We need to talk." The valved warmth of her voice was something to sink into, even if it was flecking impatient over the cell line.<p>

"Sweetheart, I've no time - "

"How about you take ten seconds to realize that when I say 'we need to talk' it's generally not just because I want attention."

She was right fired up, voice ticking up in a rise of ostentatious confidence and bred with down right sass.

He bit down into the realization that, in general, she was fairly correct. "What happened?"

"Patterson happened." Her voice strained a little cagey over the line and he squinted into leaning his shoulders forward, tucking the phone tighter into the way he was curling forward, "We need to work this out, Scotty. I'm… I can't do this without something coming my way. We need to figure something out to shut her up or - "

"Okay." He hushed a murmuring agreement into the cell, catching the way Rat was stepping into his side, head tipped in a hushed waiting, "We'll sort it."

"Filip?"

"Don't twist up on me, Ally." He shook his head slowly as he watched the rest of the club filter into the chapel, their eyes catching the way he still hadn't moved from his chair even as they kept on their way, "Need y'clear."

"Okay." The vacancy in her tone said that she really probably wasn't.

"Althea?" he caught the uncomfortable shifting Rat made and flicked his fingers out, patting against the younger man's leg before he gave him a half smile.

"I said 'okay'." She tossed back tightly. "We'll figure something out."

Chibs smirked wider into the sudden flecking of frustration that was riling her tone and he slacked back in the chair, grinning into the way Rat was cocking an arched brow over him, "Y'mad?"

There was a supposedly sweetened sound coming off her throat and it just barely echoed past the droning of the phone line, "What makes you think I'm mad?"

"The murderous tone of voice, maybe." He couldn't keep the smiling out of his voice, exhaling into the way she didn't catch against his taunting as she normally would have, "Or ominous silence."

He heard the breaking of her resolve in the slow in and out turning of her breathing.

"I will admit to being somewhat infatuated with you. The accent probably has a hell of a lot to do with it." Something sugared had soaked back into the heat of her voice, the curling sweet of it dipping his eyes closed.

"That's a start, darlin'."

And another huff of breath tattered into a near laugh, "I'm insane, Telford. You know that? This is completely insane."

"I like you wild." He couldn't help the admittance when she'd so easily offered up a weak point, "And you know that."

She exhaled something near appreciation over the line before her voice grazed back into a swelling confidence, "I just need to find something that'll appease her. Something she wants. I need leverage, pin her down. Re-election is in - "

"Y'need me here for this part, Lieutenant?" Chibs murmured, glancing up into the way Rat was tucked around himself, his head awkwardly and intentionally turned toward the windows.

"Sorry. No. You can hang up."

As though she'd damn near forgotten he was there.

Too tangled up in her own premeditated calculation.

It had him bending farther forward in humored affection.

"Well, thank you." He whispered into tucking his jaw down, the phone curled tighter against his jaw, "Wanna call me before y'leave?"

"Do I want to?" Ally's voice chipped back into a teasing.

"You'll call me before you leave." He nodded as he pressed up from the chair, stretching into the aching that was still wearing too long and deep into his muscles.

Another breathy laugh came off her over the line, "Will I?"

"Goodbye, Althea." He murmured it easily into his lashes dipping lower, head tipped from the way Rat was smirking at his side.

"Catch ya later, Scotty."

He turned his jaw higher up into the way the other man was still watching him as he thumbed the phone off, "What?"

"No offense, Prez." Rat lifted both hands into a smirking hush, "Just don't get what you see in that woman."

Chibs nodded once before leaning his shoulders forward, hand quickly rising into the way Rat jumped as two fingers tapped into his temple, "Remember puttin' that gun to your head? Roulette night? Tastin' the blood that didn't exist yet?"

"I…" the younger man nodded into a slagged shrugging, off guard paleness blanching beneath his beard. "Yeah."

"She's neither the gun nor the blood, Rat." He tossed off quietly as he started steps toward the door.

"Chibs?"

His voice was still soft, even as he kept his back toward the younger man, "She's the tasting."

"That's sorta fucked up." Rat tossed after him. "You hearing yourself?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

* * *

><p>"Now, y'know who I am." It wasn't a question but, instead, a lilting assumption that was made delicate and lukewarm by a smile and a gentled accent.<p>

"Of course I do."

Of course she'd known. Before she'd even opened the door.

Because it seemed to be the perfect day for a threatening of any sort.

"Good. Then I don't need to introduce myself." He seemed so very charmingly chipper in the way he was addressing her, comfortably controlled and mildly amused as he shrugged her a longly lined smile under dusk and porch light, "Aren't y'going to invite me in?"

Ally just feigned a smile back, letting her hand curl the edge of the door as she caught the way his blue eyes dipped the line of her, "And why in the hell would I?"

"Because I brought wine. And a gift. As any decent guest might." The lift of his hands showed they were full and she blinked into a relief that, at the very least, he'd have to drop the bottle or the box before drawing a weapon.

Unless one of them was the weapon.

Which just had her tightening her fingers harder along the wood.

"Filip isn't here." She softened the words into a slowly made quietness.

"Filip will be here." He responded just as gently, his shoulders leaning into the way he dipped knowing accusation along with the line of his lean jaw, "You think I don't know where he's puttin' his head down, Lieutenant Sheriff? Surprised he's let you alone tonight."

She refused the urge to step back from the way he lifted the bottle of red casually in her direction, aiming it toward her with a dipping nod. Her fingers curled the neck as she leaned the chilled bottle into her torso, prizing it as her own possible weighty weapon even as he smiled into her slow acceptance.

"Because y'haven't been alone lately, you see." The patient gentleness of his accent was dulled even farther by the way he sent another look over her hair before rising back to her eyes.

Ally dropped her hand at the slow lift of his, damning herself for the mistake as he curled his fingers onto the exact same edging of the door, his suited weight pressing forward even as she refused to step back, "Excuse me?"

"No escort?" Gaige shrugged into a sort of supposed kind interest.

"I don't need one."

"But you've had one." He corrected quickly, nodding truth into the negation before he let off a seemingly amused sighing, "Must we do this on your front step, Althea? It's not civilized."

She wasn't surprised by the fact that he could draw her rank and name between them.

She was staggered by how dank and gritted her name sounded rising off his tripping accent when she usually found it so richly sweet off another rougher one.

"You wanna be civilized?" She snorted derision into a sudden swing of composure, leaning into the way he was banking himself closer, refusing the urge to give ground. "Really?"

"I do generally prefer it." And he was smiling widely into the way she was drawing her shoulders nearly as high as his, head angling into the way the pale and blue of him sparked amusement as he studied her, "You're a beautiful woman, aren't you? Truly."

He still hadn't touched her, but his closeness was intentionally personal, and it rucked her stomach into knotting, "You picked the wrong leverage. He cares more about his boys than me."

A shrug lifted his shoulders as he let his fingers slide down the door's edge, lifting between them carelessly, "S'pose I'd rather spend the waitin' with you. Is that so terrible?"

"I don't know anything. Not anything you'll be able to use." Ally murmured honestly, shaking her head into the way his palm dropped between them loosely.

And her free hand caught the flicked turn of his wrist within a fraction of the moment he'd caught long fingers into the fabric of her skirt, both their grips jerked into hard muscling that even she knew he'd probably win. He proved it when he tugged her forward into the way he was leaning a surprised and hazily humored grin between them, the bottle brooked up between them and keeping him far enough separate that she could keep her head backed away from his. The subtle shifting of his hand had her tightening her hold on his wrist, watching humor cloud the blue of his eyes as he rubbed the fabric of her skirt between fingers.

"That's just not true. You happen t'know which drawer the bottle opener is in." A tipping manic amusement had skiffed his words just before he angled a deceit of a smile on her, "That's information I can use, Lieutenant. Now, invite me in. Be polite."

"Civilized?" She murmured into the way he was loosening his fingers from fabric, wiping it flat to her thigh with spread and straight fingers, intentionally catching along the ridged strapping of the holster she was wearing.

Gaige gave her a smiling nod of bemused agreement as he skipped his nails off it, "Lady like."

She stepped back as he loosened from her, lifting her hand to aim him down the hall and blinking into his chuckled response, "Ah, ladies first."

"Such a gentleman." Ally shunted back sardonically before turning, laying her back to the sound of him behind her as she let the bottle swing to her side.

* * *

><p>He'd waited out most of the boys, watching them chatter after Church before finding separate ways, smirking into the way they seemed to be settling easier into an old rhythm of agreement before dialing her number, "Y'home already? You are, aren't ya?"<p>

"I called. You were busy." The slapping retort of her tone he'd actually expected.

And to be fair, she had called while he was explaining the Irishman at the table. Twice.

"And y'damn well coulda waited." He murmured into an intentionally playful countering, keeping his tone lightened, "You know - "

"Come home." Her interruption was quick and slanted with breath. "No more playing bad guy today, huh?"

Chibs let his head dip a little as Trager passed a warmed glance of amusement over his conversation, "I've still - "

"Come home, Filip."

She'd drawn him close with the velveted warmth of lust often enough for him to know the tracing ardor of it.

And she'd made plenty of orders on him, as well. Which he usually ignored.

But this was neither. This was a latent pleading of a sort, something twitching toward tight and tamped down dangerous.

He frowned as he snapped his fingers up in Tig's direction, swallowing as a blue flamed glance caught the slackening of his jaw and paused them still to facing each other, "You alone, Ally? Y'sound like you're tippin'."

"No, I left a little early." All he'd really needed to hear was the swift negation she'd given him, his hand curling tight to the phone as he flicked a look toward Trager, holding the other man's eyes with an arched glance, "Hearing went well, though."

"Gaige? He put his hands on you? Y'alright, love?"

Tig's sudden step forward and the sound his boots made to the floor were the echo of how his lungs latched up closed, ribs gating locked on hitched breathing.

"Okay." There was a tip to her tone that played conversational but the subtle implication laxed his breathing a little as he lifted a clenched hand into the front of the other man's cut, already pulling the both of them toward the door, "Door's unlocked."

"M'not gonna let him hurt you." He responded heavily into the feigned lightness of her tone, fingers unconsciously digging deeper into the other man's leather, "He alone? If he's alone I want y'to hang up. He'll know if y'keep up the double talk."

The sudden cutting silence of her nearly caught up his steps and he exhaled sharply as he dropped the phone from his ear.

"You gotta be kidding me?" Tig was already shored up into his side. "He's gonna walk right into the Sheriff's house his first night in town? Ballsy son of a bitch."

"Can't use Fi and Kerri as weight right now. Wouldn't play well at home." Chibs spit the words off as they broke together out the door, moving tightly toward their bikes. "And the boys are too well watched by both sides. It's why he didn't mention her earlier. Keepin' his pawns outta play."

"AJ can handle herself, Chibs." The concern in the older man's voice mixed up with the intent of support. "Obviously she's - "

"He'd slit her throat in my bed if he thought it'd put me in line, Tiggy." He'd already loosened from leather and straddled his own bike. "He's bending me to find the weak points. Calculatin' cost."

"Y'gotta be calm and easy with this, Chibs." He cast his voice louder up over the way the other man jerked his bike into a roaring start.

Chibs gave him a biting glance before shrugging, "I'm calm."

"Bullshit." Tig muttered as he started his own bike, helmet not even strapped before he had to put himself into motion behind the other man.


	24. Chapter 24

She'd told him to come home. And maybe every time she referred to it as such he lagged a little closer toward a leniency, letting it crack farther an opening of a possibility. A possible place that didn't feel as chilled empty as his own house had when he'd stopped in the last few days, for clothes or whatever he'd needed. And opening the door this time felt like more like a homecoming than ever yet, because he knew past and present were met somewhere in the rooms that clouded him up with the surrounding smell of her.

"Got it." Tig's quieted murmur was tight to his shoulder as his hand clipped the door, brushing it slowly shut behind him.

"Already knows we're here." Chibs shrugged off as he started tugging his gloves from his fingers, a long stride already leading him toward the kitchen. "Y'can hear the bikes through the whole house."

He caught the noise of agreement Tig made into stepping along his back, their movements mimed together and linked in cautious quickness. He kept his hands empty, gloves tucked into his back pocket and fingers spread as he stepped into the light from the kitchen, slacking his arm up into the doorframe so that Tig was pressed up tight behind him.

"Y'brought a friend, Filip." Gaige was laxed back in one of her chairs, legs loosely spread before him as he palmed a wine glass along the top of the table. "Should have brought more drink then."

As soon as he saw the way she was sitting, angled sidelong and away from Gaige's stretched out leaning, he knew exactly which thigh the holster was strapped to. Because she'd lifted her left leg crossed over, her right palm pressing the tightened stretch of her thigh as she tipped her high heel up and down in a repetitive and nervous fidget. The other hand was lifted flat palmed to the table, fingers stretched too awfully close to the relaxed curl of Gaige's fingers around the glass stem.

"Look at me." He ordered across the kitchen, fractioning his jaw up toward her as he ignored the Irishman's taunting, catching onto the darkly pinned brown of her furious eyes. "He hurt you?"

"I didn't even disarm her." Cal tossed casually between them, his hand laxing off the glass so that he could stretch his hand just as evenly flat as hers as she shook her head slowly. "I've been a gentleman. Ask her."

"He's a jackass." She sharply broke into the hesitant heat of the kitchen, "But he's behaved himself."

Gaige cast an uncurbed laugh into her attitude and Chibs banked him a sparing glance as he stepped boldly into the room, ignoring the other man's presence as he leaned himself around the table. Tig's steps followed slowly and stunted half across the room, placing him directly across from Gaige as he silently stilled his moving. The Scot led with his hand along the stretch of her throat, fingers spanned to palm along her mildly battered pulse as he dipped his shoulders and jaw into the way she turned her head tightly into his shifting.

His thumb rode her head higher, forcing her angling up into the way he brushed his mouth against her cheek, "Did he - "

"No." she shook off into the turn of his lips slowly brushing along hers. "I'm fine."

"She's fine." Cal offered up in a twistingly humored repetition.

"Look at me, Althea." He murmured again, searching the glassed darkness of her eyes as he nodded her a softened smile that was so finely edged in a possible disaster she'd not yet seen from him. "Sorry I'm late for cocktails, my love."

A confused half smile tweaked her lips before she dipped her jaw into a cocked grin of semi amusement, leaning into the way he pressed up straight behind her and graced his palm flat along her collarbone and stayed it there. Her fingers lifted from the table to hook into the way he was pressing her shoulders back and still into the sway of his leaning on her chair.

"You wanted something?" he asked over her head, letting her fingers ride off his as he slaked her hair off her shoulder and back, his other hand stretching over her to lift the full glass that was sitting in front of her.

"You make that call?" Gaige asked as he swayed himself sidelong into the chair, shrugging his elbow onto the back of it with a smirking tip of his own glass.

"Had to take it to church first. And before I'd the chance to dial, I found an Irishman in my kitchen." Chibs shrugged a supposedly blasé lifting of his shoulders as he sipped at the wine and swayed the glass away quickly. "This is pure shite, Cal. Y'couldn't afford something higher on the shelves?"

"Your kitchen?" Tig tossed a near on maniacal grinning over them all, bandying a comforting wink down over the way Ally was still straight backed in the chair. "This is gettin' interesting now."

"I'd say you have no taste," Gaige lifted his own glass between them before dropping his bright glance over the way Chibs' fingers were still tucked into the dark of her hair, laced up with his knuckles pressing the back of her neck. "but current evidence suggests there's hope for you, Telford."

"Y'had my attention already." Chibs murmured into a slagged hush, his hand angling the glass down in front of her to take before he palmed against her shoulders and nudged her toward standing. "This was not necessary, Callum."

Gaige dipped him an apologetic nod, one of his hands lifting in a wave of bemused agreement. "I think you're probably right. Couldn't help m'self."

"You want me makin' that call it probably shouldn't be in front of the law, huh?" his fingers stroked into the silkiness of her shirt as she caught her glance into his, blinking into a concerned questioning. "Go on."

Ally frowned an instantaneously silent dispute into the tipping of his head to the hall, her jaw shifting minutely back and forth in argument. "I think I'd rather - "

"No. Tig." He cast the other man a tipped glance, catching a fidget of argument in his eyes as well before he nodded a blink of force between them.

"C'mon, AJ." Trager shifted his steps back, angling his head to the doorway with a blanked expression that neared apology, "I'll just give you a tour of the hall."

"Scotty." Her fingers dug a stilling to his pressing, jerking into leather as he paused from angling her around the table.

He thought it likely the first time she'd ever looked at him like she actually really needed him. And the coalesced coppery color of that innocent necessity in her glance made him press his palm curving into her stomach, head tipping closer to hers. It was bracing him to her and leaving him far too vulnerable.

Which was exactly why she couldn't stay where she was.

"Go on." He whispered into the way she'd turned her jaw closer. "Just give us bit. Just havin' a drink with an old friend, yeah?"

"He is correct." Gaige's tone had actually lost most of its chirpy humor, the timbre of it lowering into the dulled tip of his accent. "All is well, Lieutenant."

The silent accusation she dragged between the two of them, her eyes dropping back toward a darker shade as she tucked against leather had him curling a forced smile in her direction, nodding quietly. He bent his mouthly quickly into hers, forcing her closer into his leaning as he sipped a kiss off her, letting her clutch on him another breath before he intentionally lifted his head away from hers.

"You're all jackasses." She hushed forward, unexplainable catching him into another chaste kiss before she loosened her fingers from him, biting on her bottom lip as she turned into the way Tig was waiting. "I can find the way to my bedroom myself, thank you."

"Your house, doll." He shrugged a leaning into the doorway, thumbs hooked onto his belt as he dropped his eyes from her glaring.

Laughter tripped up from the table as she left and Chibs dropping a sharp glaring over the other man, his teeth tightening together as Gaige lifted the bottle to refill his glass. "That's gonna smart on ya later, Filip. She's no easy mark."

He'd kept his head turned on her until the last of the dark of her hair was visible, shifting his weight down into the chair she'd been in so that he could stretch his angling toward the other man. He turned Gaige a supposed smile of agreement as he leaned forward, shrugging his shoulders into feigned amusement while he lifted his hand, bracing the bottle as it settled back to the table. There was a flexed tightness to the other man's hand, a momentary calculation before he released his own long fingers off the neck of it. Chibs just lift it slowly, knowing Gaige was watching his movement before he pulled it close and took a long swallow off it. The blonde perked another smiling round of giddied humor over him and he met the blue of the other man's eyes as he turned the bottle back to the table.

"Had y'touched her," he sank the words into a deadened but flush quiet that had Tig moving a margin closer back to his side of the table, "I'da put a blade through your throat."

"Filip - "

"And not fuckin' blinked." He assured in a blanked vacancy of tone. "And y'know it."

"You've made that threat before." Gaige's smile was suddenly colder than it had been all the day long. "Haven't you?"

"And lucky you are that y'listened." Chibs hushed back as he pulled his phone from his pocket, catching the way both Gaige and Tig watched him warily in the movement as he stretched his shoulders back. "I'm makin' this call and you're gettin' the hell out of this house."

"Fair enough." The blonde twisted his fingers back around his glass, lifting it into a mocking toast as Telford dialed. "We can finish the discussion another time."

"Another place too, huh?" Tig cocked over the blonde derisively. "Not in the middle of the county Sheriff's kitchen. Who taught you how to conduct business?"

"This one." Gaige's smile was curling back toward a twisting as he waved toward Telford.

Tig coughed out a choked laugh as Chibs gave him a glaring look, phone already lifted to his ear as his back laxed farther into the chair. "Never mind."

* * *

><p>He knocked the backs of his knuckles into the half open door, rings clattering the sound up louder than he'd meant, "You decent?"<p>

"Far from it." Her answer was a swift slapping of self degradation and sick humor as the bedroom door tipped farther open. "This is bullshit, Trager."

"Hey," his palms lifted flat and open as she swung the door open for him, her long stride already carrying her back into the center of her bedroom. "he's handling it, AJ. You knew this shit wasn't gonna be pretty."

"His shit just landed in my kitchen." The snapped way she turned on him drew his jaw up into sudden defense.

Tig nodded slowly into a dwindling patience, "Don't like it when you have to face reality, do you? Messes up that pretty little picture in your head?"

Her face had drawn pale and the suddenly accusatory shading over her skin had him biting into silence as she shook her head at him, "You think I can just forget reality, Tig? You think I just have some sorta selective amnesia when it comes to the fact that he's not just a criminal, he's the fucking ring-leader?"

"He's gotta do this to get us out." He murmured as she dumped back onto the mattress, trying to stay his voice softened as she nudged her heels off to the floor.

"I don't care what he has to do." She shot into the room tightly, fingers curling up the hem of her skirt so quickly that he blinked a surprised turn of his head away from the movement. "Not in my kitchen."

"Jesus, Ally." He lifted a palm between them, intentionally keeping his head turned away from the stretch of her long legs. "I'm right here."

"What?" she couldn't help but find some semblance of humor in the way he'd banked sideways in the doorway, intentionally dropping his glance away from her with an angling to his jaw. "Never seen a Glock before, Tigger?"

"Just, clothes stay on, huh?" he muttered uncomfortably as she unstrapped the holster and drew the edge of her skirt back down, dumping the gun to the mattress.

"You can look." There was a tripping of almost comfort off her voice. "I'm not gonna give you a lap dance at gun point."

He panned her a slow look that mingled somewhere between cocky and affectionate, a half smile on his lips as he shook his head, "You're a twisted woman."

"Why do you think he can't stop touching me?" the smug whisper of her words laid out between them and Tig watched her pass her hand against her stomach as she exhaled into a complacent shrugging.

"Because you're twisted?" he flicked a grin between them. "He's always had an itch for marginal crazy. Thinks it balances his guilt, finding a woman just as torn up as he is and holding her edges together. And you sure as shit ain't pure snow, Jarry."

"No." she shrugged her shoulders as she panned him a suddenly wearied glance, "he's not completely black hearted, either."

"He just wants to take care of you. You pulled on something, somehow. Made him think things are possible when they just shouldn't be." Tig left off awkwardly as he waved toward the door. "Just give him ten minutes. He's gotta get this right."

"Things are possible, Tig." She let her palm relax into the silkiness of her shirt. "They're just not perfect."

"If you're waiting for perfect from him then it's gonna be awhile." Tig teased at her, letting his arm slack into the doorframe with a shake of his head. "But then I don't think you're the sorta woman who walks around waiting for a prince."

"In some ways he already is." She shrugged again before lifting her hands, slowly pulling the earring from one ear.

Tig chuckled, his head angling back as he shot a glance down the hall, "A prince?"

"Sorta perfect." She just grinned into a swayed shaking of her head, already cocking her jaw into drawing the other earring out. "But still in some very deep shit."

"Just gotta slap at each other don'tcha?"

She lifted her shoulders into a slow and delicate smile, letting the earrings drop to the top of the dresser as she exhaled, "I like it when he's strong. I love his temper. Makes the softness of him twice as valuable."

He gave her another laughing shake of the head, aiming his fingers at her as he backed into the hall and started away, "Twisted."

* * *

><p>He couldn't help his hands and the sudden twitched movement they made in the hall, left palm breaking through the slacking silence to catch against the back of the other man's neck while the right rigged into Gaige's arm. And he knew, he damn well knew, he shouldn't have let the muscles shift. But he hadn't been able to save himself from blocking his chest just as tightly into the younger man's shoulder, keeping tight along the way Gaige suddenly staggered up still in his leaving. And they were braced up in her well lit hall, the two of them blocked one after the other in stalemate of a battle that managed to lean them closer rather than farther apart.<p>

"Got what y'wanted, Gaige." Chibs intentionally let his fingers dig deeper, the lift of the other man's jaw a sort of contrary shifting in the face of intimidation. "Leave this alone."

Gaige's breathed out a snort of derisive amusement, "This? This worth puttin' your girls - "

"Don't pull me in two directions." Telford cut down tightly into the other man's shoulder, loosening his hands as he pulled patience into his lungs on a long draw. "Y'know how much I dislike multi-tasking."

"What I wouldn't give to have you back, Filip." The blonde stepped from the gripping touch, rolling his shoulders as he straightened his jacket on a smirking turn of his head, a hand strafing through his hair. "We could find a way. You'd be a righteous king."

He skidded his teeth against his lip on a wicked smile, reaching around the shorter man to catch the door open widely, "Maybe I already am, Cal. Cross this door again, and we'll see."

Gaige turned completely, a palm gracing the door as he stepped backwards from the house, head dipping into swilled humor, "Good night, my friend. Sleep well."

He bit down in a silence that spoke as response, watching the slight and quick turn of the other man's length as he jaunted down her steps and toward the street.


	25. Chapter 25

"Dear Santa," Tig's voice jangled just as caustically as his keys as he rattled them over the table, leaning between the way the two of them were standing opposite. "I just want my mommy and daddy back together for Christmas."

"Good night, Tig." Ally murmured over him with a lagged glance of weariness, one of her arms crossed against her torso as she fingered a slip of silver chaining in the other hand.

"Night." He waved his hand between them, casting a glance toward the other man and catching the rise of Telford's eyebrows in an otherwise silent shrugging. "And good luck."

"Out." Her voice tapped out quickly after him and he grinned a backwards wave that Chibs cocked a half smile into, letting his hips slant back as his shoulders rested into the front of the fridge.

"No need to be rude." He murmured, frowning into the way she let the chain she'd been playing with hang full from her fingers, the stretch of it long and sparkling in the way she dropped it to hang above the empty box on the table.

"But he's not the one that brought me jewelry." She shrugged into lifting the necklace higher, her tone raised into an intentional haughtiness.

Chibs felt his jaw wire up reflexively as he pushed off the front of the fridge, arms dropping off the stretch of his chest so that he could reach against the chain, letting his thumb catch onto the pendant. He snorted as he shook his head slowly back and forth, turning a glance up at her as he kept it pressed tightly between fingers.

"Probably a carat. Round cut, full facets. " He pinched the pendant tighter as he spoke, biting back the swallow of something distasteful in his throat. "Can't speak to clarity."

Ally just cocked him a glare over the table. "If it's even real."

"Sure it's real." He rolled it between his fingers as he blinked her a shrug, "The question is where it came from. Or who it came off of, rather."

The sudden disgust that washed over her face moved as quickly as her fingers loosening the chain into his hand, her head shaking back and forth as she curled her arms back against herself. He palmed the necklace down, tipping a slowly searching glance over how angrily wound up she was against the slim stretch of her own length. He appreciated the fact that somehow he'd still managed to catch another round of looking at her in a slim skirt and the brash white silk of the shirt she was wearing.

"It'd look fine on ya." He shrugged as he lifted his closed hand, turning his steps slowly around the table as she watched his approach warily, anger still tightening up every toned muscle he could catch sight of. "Go on and keep it."

"Fence it." She shook off, letting her tongue slake her lips. "I don't want it."

"Good." He nodded quickly into reaching against her, pulling on the flexed muscle of her forearm, ignoring the jacked straightness of her as he leaned closer. "I know you're mad, darlin'."

"You know…" she rushed out a hard exhalation, shaking her head as she started to shift away from him, her eyes tinting furiously bright when he broke her back forward with a sharp pull of his hand. "Let go."

"No." he rounded back just as tightly, the dark of his eyes searching over the angles of her face with a tampening of his jaw. "You all right?"

"I'm fine." Ally dropped the whisper between them, "I'm pissed."

"I can tell." Chibs nodded tightly as he stuffed the necklace carelessly to his pocket, his hand catching up against her jaw so forcefully she just let her head lift into the motion of his palm. "I don't care, Althea. Are you all right?"

"I'm - "

"You're not." He argued into driving tighter into the front of her, thumb bracing against her bottom lip as he kept her jaw lifted into his keened watching, "You're lyin' to me. Dark eyes, remember?"

"He came into my house." The breaks of her palms shoved hard into his chest, forcing them separate as she intentionally placed space between them, drawing herself from the way leather had very suddenly become the comfortable rest for fidgeting fingers.

A rough exhalation came off him as his hands lifted, jaw twitching as he shook his head into brash argument, "And had you just waited - "

"He was in my house, Filip." He sucked down a breath into the rough snapping break of her voice as she turned from him, the sheering of emotion rattling through the otherwise caged silence of the kitchen, "This morning Patterson threatens to have me fired for fraternization and by dark I have a high ranking member of the IRA at my kitchen table? This is you trying to get out of the business?"

The ends of her voice were frayed up frustrated and she'd placed her palms onto the counter, head turned so that he could see the angled strength that still managed to hold in her profile. He unconsciously sank his hips back, settling onto the table with flat boots to the floor. Regardless of her words, the stricken lean of her against the counter, so vulnerably open to anything even as she raged, it slaked his own anger. The lean line of her from tip to toe always managed to break him up shambled, whether it was while she was swinging indignation on a slap or whispering worry as she moaned on him. Her extremes, bright fury or slackened sadness, broke him down somehow.

Any emotional explosion always caved him in.

And always, always, had him wanting her closer.

"This is me tryin' to keep everyone I still have breathin'." He explained into curling his hands on the edge of the table, denying a reaching for her. "You know I'm not a fuckin' saint, Althea. I'm trying."

"Filip - "

"I'm tired, darlin'. I'm done. It's been…" He angled his shoulders dipping into the hushed explanation, voice even and calmed into the way she finally turned her body to lay her hips back into the counter. "I'm trying. You gotta just - "

"I'm terrified of this." She broke over him tightly, the tinting of her eyes turning bright to a new penny metal.

Chibs frowned into shaking his head slowly, "He's not gonna - "

"Not of him, Filip. For fuck's sake, he's nothing." Her face had gone distinctly pale, head shaking slowly back and forth as she banked a glance of avoidance away from him, "Of you. Of this."

"Of me?" A stark half smile rose on his lips before dropping away into an obvious sweep of distaste, head shaking just as slowly as hers, "You still think I'd hurt you? Y'still - "

"Jesus, you're an idiot, Scotty." His head lifted darkly into the sharp accusation, hand jerking into the way she reached for his face as she stepped forward and blinking surprise into the way she caught against it and jerked at his jaw with the other palm, "Not of you. Of loving you."

"Not where I thought this conversation was goin'." He slanted his head slowly to the side, eyes thinning in scrutiny as he studied the lightness of her skin.

"Don't do that." The sudden prying tightness on his jaw tweaked on him enough that he pressed farther into it to force her to stay or let go, her hand pulling his face closer in a quick response, "Not this time. Don't change the subject."

He couldn't help the breath he loosened out from parted lips, a self conscious shifting to his shoulders as his eyes thinned, "I mean I thought you were tellin' me to leave."

"I considered it." The suddenly slaked way she was murmuring had drawn more into breathless than he'd expected, the smile tipping wider under the softening of her fingers as she wiped against his beard. "Momentarily."

"I'm still here." The filtered surprise in his tone met with the way he lifted a genuinely innocent smile at her, dimples diving into scars and making his face brighten up.

The cockiness that suddenly rose into the confident shifting of his shoulders and hips had her nearly rolling her eyes, letting his arm at her waist slant her angling tighter into him as he shifted back against the table again. His movement drew her with him, the bending of her spine tipping her into the way he flushed her hips tight into his. Ally forced oxygen into her lungs despite how tightly he was suddenly curling around her, letting his capable arms vice her ribs as his head downed along her collarbone. And at first she straightened against it, flustered by his silence. The inevitable lack of emotional response to –

"If y'knew what I've done to - "

"I don't need you innocent." She tipped her finger along his ear, smirking into the way he shirked his head into the feathering touch with a grunt of ticklish tipping, "I just want you."

"Y'don't know what you're askin' for, Ally." His head lifted into the tug she gave against his earlobe, her spine still arched into his pulling so that he could angle his jaw up to meet the way she was watching him.

"Yeah, I do." She hushed the words quiet as his fingers dug into silk, hands still spanning up her back and gripping it tighter against her. "It's mine and I want it."

"Is it?" he flicked her a flared grin, the color of his eyes brightening even as his lids lowered in a haze of lusted knowing, licking against his lips as he pulled the fabric taut.

"Your kitchen? Is it?" she teased her mouth brushing close to his and drew back quickly as he lifted for a kiss, playfully arching farther back and letting her weight loosen into his flexed arms as he squinted at her in bemused challenge. "Don't you ruin this shirt too."

"I'll buy you another." Chibs shrugged into reaching his mouth to hers, huffing an annoyed noise when she leaned farther back, forcing him to grip tighter. "Althea."

"What?" she wasn't teasing as her fingers wiped his cheek, her tone sinking low and breathing quiet as she watched his features soften.

"C'mere." His grin was ever an inevitable devastation to any strategy she may have thought she really had.

Ally cocked him a tipped and surreptitious glance, "Why?"

"Because I said." His arms flexed hard and she felt the sudden up slant of her spine in response to his jerked shifting, the pull shunting her harder against his laxed hips as he lifted his mouth into catching hers roughly.

The width and spread of his palms sloped calloused down the silken spread of her back before he grazed his hands against her hips, swallowing the whimpered noise she laid onto his tongue as he dug her roughly into his groin and forced a knee between hers. His fingers were already skidding up the hem of her skirt, a rough noise slanting off him as he jerked his head back, eyes dark as he searched over her in accusation.

There was as near a genuine pout as she seen on his face and she laughed into it, tightening into the way his knuckles were backed up and brushing against the inside of her bare left thigh. "You're a cruel woman, Althea. Been lookin' forward to that all day and you already took it off?"

"My kitchen." She laid a soft kiss against him, catching the groan he let off when her hair brushed his cheeks, "You don't get everything you want here, President."

"But you do?" he clipped his jaw up, brow arched high, "Huh? You're demandin' plenty but - "

"I'm the one with the balls here, Telford." She cocked over him tightly, angling a whipping glance over his taunting. "Don't hear you saying - "

"Say what?" He smirked into the quick dip of his jaw, eyes still lifted past lashes as he let the smile slant wide. "Y'scare the hell outta me too, Ally. Ran two lights and didn't once abide a speed limit gettin' here."

"And then made a phone call that condones criminal activity from inside my house."

He gauged the slanting of her tone as he blinked, his fingers slow in their shifting as he blindly curved his palms against her thighs, "And why?"

"To get rid of your murderous boyhood pal?"

"Sure," he sucked against his teeth before making a noise in his throat, riding her skirt higher as he shrugged lazily, "and why?"

"You get jealous and petty when the other boys play with your toys." Her fingers lifted into wiping along his temple, tracing the hedging of gray on his hairline as his hands stroked up under fabric to curve her closer into the pressing heat of a half erection.

A smirk flickered on his lips before he lifted her a hazy glance, voice dragging low and gritted up, "Why?"

She felt the flush hit her cheeks as she shook her head over him, "Because they're yours."

"Yes," the sure shifting of his palms bunched the skirt and dragged her hard into his lap, standing into the way he drew her onto him to force her pulling higher, "you are."

Once he turned his mouth grazing along her throat she didn't care to fight the assertion, letting him draw her legs higher against his hips as she smiled into the curl of him catching her up into his chest.

"Not your toy, Scotty." Her voice hummed heat into the way he was shifting across the kitchen floor on heavy boots, his mouth still strafing her throat.

He let an affectionate noise off his throat, rubbing it into her neck as he aimed for the hall, "But I take very good care of my toys, love."

Her elbows jacked into his shoulders, dragging a cusp of breath off him as she pulled higher into his chest, "I'm not - "

"I know, Ally." He groaned as he bridged the line of her spine into the doorframe, hands downed to curl her thighs as he pried them tighter on her hips and dropped his forehead into the leaning of hers. "Christ, woman. You're not an easy woman to - "

"Don't drop me, Telford." She teased a softness into the obvious swinging frustration that had him flat stroking his palms along the backs of her bared thighs, his hips keeping her pinned up along with the flat press of his chest.

"Shut up." He growled a nipping along her ear, "Sweet Christ… You're not an easy woman to care for."

"I - "

"But I do," he hushed the interruption along the way her head dropped back into laying her throat out open for his mouth, "don't I, love?"

"Do you?" Ally whispered into the graze of his teeth along her throat, letting her hands brace up along the back of his head as she moaned into the swipe of his tongue against damp skin.

"Take care of what's mine." He demanded into her skin as he sloped his hands against her hips, letting his knees slacken their combined weight and dragging her carefully down the doorframe.

She shifted forward into the cradling of his arms as he settled her into his lap, his legs tightened up under her leaning, "You're just twisting up words, Scotty. There's a difference between taking care of someone and caring about - "

"Not for you." He shook his head tightly, swallowing hard into the way he focused on the trapped darkness of her eyes. "They're the same for you. Both when it comes to you, yeah? Couldn't breathe when I thought he was too close to you."

A smile curled her lips that was innocent of anything but shy warmth, "Okay."

"Okay?" Chibs snorted a dry laugh between them, tucking her closer by dragging her legs farther around him with slow moving hands, "Y'pry it out of me with a goddamn crowbar and when I finally fess to it, just 'okay'?"

"I dunno what else to say. It was sort of a Hail Mary." An embarrassed flush tinted the general pale of her cheeks as she fingered the edge of leather, her jaw dipping into the shrugging she made, "I didn't think it was actually gonna work."

He blinked a quick humor into the way he grazed his hand into her hair, fisting it along the back of her neck so he could angle her head back into matching his glance, "You're surprised I like loving on you?"

She let her eyes dipped closed into the way his mouth graced back against her throat, exhaling into the harsh curling way he drove her arching again, "Absolutely speechless."

His tongue lined up her jaw before he nipped on her ear again, "Then shut the hell up, Althea."


	26. Chapter 26

The shattering of frustration breaking off her throat was somewhere between unguarded affection and an edging that matched the way her fingers dug into her hair. And it just barely preceded the slap of her other hand against his wrist, her fingers curling against the way he flexed his palm closed and lifted his arm higher away from between her legs. He dropped a smile into drawing it up to his chest, lifting her tighter into his leaning as he grinned sheer amusement into the gold flecked heat of the way she was glaring at him.

"You son of a bitch." Her lips rubbed the corner of his mouth.

"Y'hate the slow down." Chibs let his tongue catch against hers as she loosened from his arm, both her hands rapid and rushed as she dug into the way she'd already gotten his shirt undone, palms flushing up his chest to ride his shoulders under cotton. "But it wires you up."

She whimpered an audible pouting into the way she rounded her forehead into his, wiping the fabric off his shoulders and down the tensed up muscles of his arms, "You're insufferable."

"Like watchin' you get close." He teased his head up into the way she'd drawn higher up against his chest, spreading the shirt farther down bridging against the way his arms were still locked forward. "Can't control yourself, can ya?"

He knew for an ever loving fact that she wasn't gonna beg him and the cocked look she gave him proved it true. The woman would give him a pleading for some things, soft things, logical things, loving things. But she wasn't the type to just fall into asking him to finish her off when she knew he had an untapped patience for keeping her razored right on an edge of coming. She wouldn't beg. She liked the updraw and drop he kept up against her with forcing fingers and a near arrogant smirk. The way he kept taking her close and stilling on a hair-thin fault line just so he could watch her stomach tightening up, ribs clutching still and the muscles all over her long lean body just tricking up tight. But she wouldn't admit to the liking either. And he wasn't about to make her confess a damn thing when she was whimpering tattered up annoyance, her fingers pushing at the fabric of his shirtsleeves.

He flushed a smile into the rounding of her palms back up against his shoulders, her knees driving into the mattress at his sides. "So impatient, sweetheart."

"I'm not." She countered her mouth down onto his, the sudden digging of her nails catching the skin of his shoulders before scraping her palms along his neck and proving that maybe he was a little more than right.

He let her lift his head into a strong swaying of her mouth against his, the sound she was letting off her lungs and into his mouth maybe sweeter and warmer and more trusting than he'd gotten before. But maybe he'd let himself hear more purpose than there was out of a wanting for it. Maybe he didn't care to know if it was really there or not, his hands going loose from her as she dropped her fingers back to forcing the shirt off him, her mouth still locked along his. An unavoidable smile reached the lines of his face as she lifted her head over his, palms slaking back up his arms as she downed her hair against his cheeks and blinked him a matching smirk.

"Look at you, Scotty." She whispered the words over his smiling. "You're damn full of yourself right now, aren't you?"

Sure, she was right. She wasn't all that often wrong.

Especially when he'd gotten most all of her clothing to the floor and she was lit up pale but warm in his lap.

And he couldn't help grinning an agreement, wiping his fingers down her tightened up stomach so that he could tease a finger into heat, "Sure, maybe. Another man gives you jewelry but I'm still the one gettin' you wet."

"I knew that pissed you off more than - " Her smug words clattered off into the stretching of her lungs for a breath as he drove two fingers into her roughly, jaw lifting into the biting of her teeth on her bottom lip as he wiped his thumb on her damp clit.

"You want for somethin', you come to me, Althea." Filip lifted the words against her up angled jaw, hooking her tighter, "Understand me?"

"I do." She whispered her lips back brushing against his. "I expect the same."

"You askin' or tellin', Lieutenant?" he nipped against the teasing softness of her light kisses.

"Do I really need to do either, Scotty?" there was a lazily tempered knowing to her voice, her fingers wiping along his cheek as she angled farther into his chest, pressing down into the thrust of his fingers as he groaned into her shifting.

"No." he admitted into a surrender of softness, still feeling an unfilled ache for the sweetness she'd been showing evidence of for hours. "Y'really don't."

The other girls had suddenly seemed flimsy and see through, beautiful as they were.

He just hadn't let himself yet admit to looking past them, hoping something closer to just her was coming through the door.

The lush smile that crowded her face was enough to force him flushed into a sort of shyness, his nose and mouth wiping into the smoothness of her shoulder before he turned into the haze of her hair. He let her drop her hands to his, her fingers drawing his from her slowly so that she could press his palms along the stacking of her ribs. He rubbed the heat of his face into the angling of her throat, tongue taking up the taste of perfume as he leaning his shoulders higher, letting her work open against his belt with sure and intentional movements.

They'd traded talents for sure. Just in the shifting of her shoulders higher than his and her jaw angling up for his beard roughed kisses. And maybe in the way that she'd actually caught him up in an inch of vulnerability. Because if he was an expert at bringing her to the brink and holding her there, she was the artisan of pulling him over and under and down into an inexplicable crashing. He didn't quite know how she managed it so madly often – but it always followed any moment wherein he got tangled in dark hair and eyes and hands and hips and, Christ, she tasted more and more like the sum of unexpected forgiveness. The ticking of an errant engine or an untimely bomb was nothing to the rattle of her pulse under the lay of his tongue.

"Shhh." The sound crowned the rise of his cheekbone and until she'd made it, her fingers already drawing him hard as they wrapped the length of his erection, he hadn't realized he was shivering a groaned rattling against her throat. "Filip?"

"How'd y'know to come when you did?" he lifted the sadly shaded smile into the way she was watching him closely. "Like y'knew I'd need a place to land?"

Ally let a grin wipe over her lips, pressing her weight into her knees as she teased him into wetness, lifting her jaw into the way his palms curled a sharply digging reflex into her ribs, "How could I pass up a place called 'Charming'?"

"And makin' passes at me first chance y'had? Not knowin' a thing?" he let his smile carry onto hers as he lifted his head into kissing her, grating a groan on her tongue with his teeth as she sank down, driving him infuriatingly slowly into wet heat and clenching as she curled on his shoulders. "All brass, darlin'."

"I knew more than enough."

His hands pressed her into moving, head angling as he stroked her sides toward ticklish, a smile on his lips as he wiped her stomach and down, fingers stretching between them as she rode intentionally slowly against him. He leaned back into the way one of her hands gripped into the back of his neck, nails skirting skin as her other hand caught onto his forearm, raking tautened muscle as he found her clit with sure fingers. His hips tensed up into the way she was letting her spine arch her movements, the sleekness of her too damn perfectly smooth for him to force. Instead he watched the flush that pinkened up along her throat as her head angled back.

"Who's full of it now?" he couldn't help the teasing in his tone as he graced his mouth along her breasts, jerking up to speed the slowness she was using in the way she was sliding him in and out of her.

Her arm curled his shoulders as she dropped her head down, humming a pleased noise into him as his mouth closed against a nipple, "You're not allowed to come until you can admit you're falling for a cop."

That craving rush of heat in her whispering always dragged the both of them into speed and rough touched embattlement.

He'd gotten startled still this time, though.

All the thrummed heat of his blood buried in his gut as he exhaled hard against her collarbone.

"That's not fair, Ally. Been soft and sweet on you tonight." His kisses brushed her skin as he intentionally urged her hips faster and rougher in their movements, fingers bruising onto her hips as he shifted farther onto the edge of the bed to sway her tighter.

"Life isn't fair. You brought an international criminal into my house." Ally leaned her balance forward, keeping her arm hooked into him while the other hand dug against his jaw, leaning her weight farther forward into driving down on him, "You heard me, Scotty. Not until - "

"Y'think I can't hold out?" the realization of how full and controlling his hands were came when he jerked the run of her torso up with long stretching fingers against her ribs.

"I think you're half in love with me." Her fingers flushed full and long against his cheek, hair dipping off her shoulder as she cocked the words along the side of his head.

"Think you're half wrong." His smile was devilishly warm and the wink that followed it curled her tighter around him as she aimed to kiss into his playfulness. And what she hadn't realized was how easily he'd placed himself into a position of leverage, pressing weight to one foot while turning his hips the opposite direction to drive her sidelong down into the mattress, a moan shivering off her lips as he jacked tighter into her to keep from slowing the rhythm she'd started.

Ally hummed a victorious smile in letting her eyes dip closed, stretching into the way he stretched over her to rash his lips and tongue back along her jaw, "Which half?"

She'd no idea how jealous of her hand he was when she wiped her mussed hair off her face, spine arching into the quickening of hard thrusts, her legs already drawn against his hips.

"Don't do anything by halves, my love." He followed the movement of her fingers with his own, digging into the darkness of her hair and closing his fingers into its sweat dampened warmth, "Y'know that."

"I know that." She agreed into the way he drew her head up, dropping his mouth against hers as he let himself closer to the pull of her, the inevitability of her drawing him off an edge. "Close enough, Filip."

"Not yet." He whispered into her throat, "But almost."

* * *

><p>She couldn't help the eyes shut smile that she felt taking over her face, her stomach tensing into a slip of coldness that drew her hand into the way he'd weighted back onto the bed beside her hip. Ally turned her head on the pillow as she stroked against his back, angling her jaw down so that she could watch the way he was laying the diamond necklace down along the stretch of her stomach and pelvis with a perked frowning. She drew the joint in her hand back against her lips and took a long swallow down, filling her lungs and holding them still before dipping it down and pressing it between his lips.<p>

"I told you to get rid of it." She exhaled the musky smoke along with the words, head dropping back into her pillow as she let her hips lax, feet perching flat as her knees flexed up higher.

"I will." He shrugged, speaking past the way he'd pinched the joint into the corner of his mouth, head turned angled so that he could study the slip of silver against her light toned skin. "Just wanna see it on ya."

"I have jewelry, Filip." She hushed off as she stretched one leg over the other, fingers catching against the way he lifted his head as she looked back over him, taking back the smoke. "I'm not the sorta girl who - "

"He's hintin' at takin' me home. Makin' me a king."

She blinked quickly, feeling the smile drop same speed as her stomach. "You should have told me that before - "

"I am tellin' you that." He accused sharply, head lifted into studying her sudden pallor as she swallowed. "Not goin', Ally. Just saying… he's tipping my way. He's letting the past muddle his strategy. Keepin' the girls behind blinders. Wants me to think he is, anyhow."

"Don't you dare trust him, Scotty." Her fingers dug freshened marks of red into the skin at his shoulder blades. "Don't let your past muddle your strategy."

"M'not." His jaw flexed as he shook his head, fingers lifting to wipe against the pendant before he lifted his glance back to hers. "You'll use him to appease, Patterson. Nothing that can actually be evidence. But it'll busy her up, right? It'll give her a focus."

"And give you a safety net if he tips the other way." She stubbed the joint into the ashtray that was on the bedside table. "Smart."

"Why, thank you, Lieutenant." His voice was chipping sharper. "Have my moments. He'll see that comin', though. Taught the boy to look beyond what's in front of him. He sees you as a piece, not a pawn. That's why he's bein' less than subtle with you."

Her glance stroked over the stretch of him, studying the way he was flat to his stomach and angled into the side of her, "Do you really believe he'll let you walk away?"

"Whole?" the exhalation he laid into her pelvis was murky damp with wearied breathing, his head dipping so that he could let his face press skin. "Not entirely, no. Best case scenario, I'll lose my hand over Sambel. Guarantee protection of Malone - if the two of them can even meet level. I'll have to make other agreements. Concessions."

"Worst case?"

His head lifted back toward hers, jaw cocked as he squinted, "Ah, no, Lieutenant. This is where your part in the discussion makes an end."

"Even considering my ass is on the line?"

"You let me watch your ass." He prowled his shoulders up, strafing his fingers along her stomach to lift the warmed metal off her stomach, dropping it off carelessly to the side of the mattress as he shifted his hips into stretching up against her, "You just get me my boys, huh? Wendy has custody?"

She dipped a nod into the way he balanced weight into one side and his other palm stretched her thigh, pressing her legs apart and curling his fingers up suddenly tensed muscle, "Temporary until the trial, but it's a good sign. I think Patterson may have leaned in on it."

The grinning he'd made into the teasing of his fingers dropped off quickly, head lifted as he continued drawing space between her legs and leaning into it, "Why would she?"

"Filip…" She debated the information into the dip of the mattress and the press of him against her, exhaling as he stroked between her legs and pressed up higher on stretched arms, "Jax met with Patterson more often than you think he did. He was in her office the day he died. Making sure she knew the club was going clean. That he was ending things."

"Althea."

Ally met the cagey warning he was leaning over her blankly, "Obviously, she didn't realize quite how he planned to end things."

"You…" There was a bridging separateness of his body to hers, his arms locked hard and tight to keep himself raised above her, the ends of his hair tripping scarred edges as he searched down over her, "Y'mean it."

"Why would I lie about that?" She let herself lay open under him, keeping her shoulders loosely back into the bed as he let his glance wander down the bare front of her, "You already have him on a pedestal, why would I make something up that keeps him there rather than knocking him off it? I don't hate him, Filip. I hate how far down he took you."

Chibs let his head cock into the flinching on his jaw, eyes shading darker as he finally let his elbows lax and his chest lower, "Went there on my own choices, love."

The lift of her jaw as he dragged up over her clipped her tone tighter, "With inaccurate information and a limitless rage."

"Has its limits." He shrugged himself down against her, letting her palms slope the back of his neck and tease along beads as he dropped his head between her breasts and wedged down farther between her legs. "I'm just a mechanic, darlin'. Who happens to sell pussy."

Ally let her spine lax into the pressing weight, arms still lifted into the way he bent as much of the pressing into the mattress as he could, "You talk to Wendy about TM yet?"

"Not yet." His beard roughed her skin, stubble rashing her redder as he shifted his jaw along the line of her sternum, "Letting her find her ground."

"Can you afford it?" She laid one hand flat along the hot flushed back of his neck, the other rising against the back of his head, words dipping into a quieted implication, "Clean money?"

"Tiggy and I are gonna make it work." His fingers lifted into laying along her throat, spanning the stretch of the way she lifted her jaw into the touch, "I'm tired, Ally."

"You should convince her to take Gemma's house. It's a better space for the boys."

"Sweetheart, there's time." The words roughed out before he playfully nipped against the inside curve of her breast, licking against the mark before flattening his head into weariness again, "You're makin' my head ache harder than it already did, a'ight? No more talk tonight. I'm blind tired."

She smirked into the groaning he laid into her chest, his palms curling up into her sides as she wiped against the back of his neck. "No more talk."

"Then hush it." The pinch he laid into her side was soft but insistent and she breathed out a dipping smile into letting her eyes shut.


	27. Chapter 27

He hadn't expected Quinn to be working already, but he'd appreciated that it was one of the quieter ones rather than someone who ran constantly frothing at the mouth. The early morning quiet lent him some patience and peacefulness, something to broach space between the moving parts. It gave him a simple pattern of breathing while he worked on an engine with a mostly silent partner, not needing a lot of banter to find a complicit rhythm. He'd needed the hush to space things out in his head, to clear the vanilla warmed scent of her out of his senses. But even miles of spacing couldn't loosen and let go of the memory of the way he'd dragged the confiscated diamond slowly up the bared curve of her spine to wake her on a teasing that had trailed out into her bringing him back to bed with sure hands and a mouth that was worth all her otherwise near on incessant chatter.

"You're smirking."

So much for the quiet.

Chibs let the smile rig into a full grin as he toed the dolly back out from under the jacked compact, "Had a good morning."

"Yeah, I bet." Quinn banked him a smirk of his own before grabbing up a couple tools and leaning back under the vehicle.

Chibs watched him, letting himself angle onto the nearest stool as he went searching for his cigarettes, "Forgot how much talkin' a woman does when she realizes you're not goin' anywhere."

Quinn's laughter rolled out from under the car, "I know what you mean."

"When's the last time you spent two nights in a row in the same bed?" Chibs tossed back on a taunting. "Haven't seen you with the same woman twice. So much for chivalry, Knight."

"There's one. Just haven't gone there." Quinn's head angled as he slacked the dolly farther out, his large shoulders shrugging against it. "I just like watching her."

"Like a stalker, yeah?" Chibs pinched a cigarette between his lips, nudging the toe of his boot against the other man's bent knee to tease. "Where'd your balls go, Nomad? Seen you bring a girl to her knees with a smile. Granted, she was drunk and halfway to the ground anyhow."

"This one's different."

"Ah," Chib's raised the lighter in the other man's direction, "and that's where y'get fucked. And things get very loud. And y'end up discussin' every little damn thing of the day when all you want is sleep."

Quinn slanted the dolly back out, leaning up to let his shoulders sway into the spread of the tire and he exhaled a certain softness, "It's Lyla."

The Scot gave him a slowly apologetic glance that winced on aching, "Now that one is different, brother."

"I know." The larger man shrugged. "She's not interested anyhow. That woman's never gonna let another man with a patch too close, ya know? And she shouldn't, really. Look what it's done to her."

He flicked a tightening glance over the other man, "Maybe I shouldn'a put you closer."

"Rather be close and quiet about it than letting our brown brothers lean on her."

"Okay." Chibs nodded slowly, "Goin' over in awhile anyhow. You in?"

"Absolutely."

* * *

><p>"Can I tell you a joke?" She was smirking as she leaned into the bar, her bright eyes lifted into the way she was riding her chin against the flat break of her palm, the blonde waves of her hair curling forward off slim shoulders.<p>

Chibs leaned onto the stool and met her humor with a smirking of his own, crowning a purely affectionate smile over the brightness of her face, "Go on then."

"Three Irishmen walk into a whorehouse." Her words had tucked quiet between them.

He cocked his grin wider, banking a glance into the way Tig and Happy and Quinn were moving into Diosa as well, letting his smile ride back to her as they spread through the main room, "What's the punchline?"

Lyla leaned closer as her smile curled wider, her shoulders lifting as Tig slanted onto the next stool from Telford, "I double charged the pretty one."

"You're an angel." He murmured chuckling appreciation as he dipped into his pocket, drawing the small box from it and laying it flat to the counter. "You can keep it, pawn it, or gift it to one of the girls. Just get it outta my hands. Should catch you up a nice price if you drop it in Stockton."

"That from last night?" Tig stretched his head lifting into questioning. "One he gave Jarry?"

"Aye." Chibs let his tongue run against his teeth, "Don't need another man droppin' diamonds on the woman I'm - "

"Maybe you should be dropping diamonds on her." Lyla jaunted quickly between them as she flicked open the box, voice lowering coolly. "Hello, there."

"Maybe if I need female advice I'll call ya right over." He tipped back against her searching smirk. "Your name ain't 'Mother' to me. Or 'Wife'."

"Pawn it, hell." She lifted the pendant from the box as she ignored his teasing, admiring the glittered spark as it caught the bar light. "I'm wearing it to bed first. With nothing else."

"Happen t'know a man who'd enjoy seein' that." He leaned over the bar before pressing off it, tapping against Tig's leg as he caught the way her head jerked up in questioning.

"Really?" she wrapped the chain up in small fingers quickly, the widened blue of her rounder eyes lifting over him. "Employed? Single? Doesn't live with his mother?"

Chibs just grinned, giving her a wink as he stepped backwards from the bar, "Marcus here already?"

"He's in the kitchen. Irish are still in the rooms." Lyla set the necklace carefully back into the box as her other palm spread flat. "Tell me."

"Can't." he flashed her a wink, catching the quizzical smirk Tig was passing him, and grinning wider into it. "Promised I wouldn't. And I don't go mindin' who's beddin' where, little sister."

"Bullshit, you don't." She slapped against the bar in annoyance and he chuckled as he turned toward the hall. "Sometimes I hate you all."

"But we love you, darlin'." He lifted an aiming in her direction as he looked back, catching the warmed smile she was passing at their back, "And who gives you diamonds, girl?"

Lyla rolled her eyes as she pressed smiling off the edge of the bar, "You boys do."

* * *

><p>"Don't mean any offense, but you'll want t'lay low." He hitched himself onto the counter, dragging his hips up and back onto it while he stretched his shoulders into the lift of his jaw.<p>

Alvarez gave him a half a smirking glance, a coffee mug lifted in his fingers and swaying between them as he leaned into Telford's smile, "Why you think I'm in the kitchen? Thought I better get started on the dishes. Yard work'd be cliché."

Chibs cocked him an apologetic glance, riding a smile into the way the other man shrugged it off as he leaned back into the island. "Gaige doesn't give a shit 'bout your color. That's the older generation's issue. He'll care about the fact he just doesn't know ya. And he's gonna be on fire with Connor in his sight."

"This is your show." Marcus shrugged, his face serenely passive even as Oso snorted off a derisive noise from the other side of the kitchenette. "Been working with Connor just fine, ese."

"I'm gonna do what I can to keep it that way." Chibs nodded into frowning, catching against his phone as it chirped off in his pocket, his jaw tightening down as he shook his head and handed the phone off. "Tiggy? Tyler."

"Got it." Trager nodded as he hooked the phone from the Scot's hand and turned his steps away with it, quietly answering it into the doorway to the kitchen.

"He gonna let this work?" Alvarez asked into the lifting of his cup, sipping slowly into the slant of his body back.

"Christ knows." Chibs let up a shrug. "Don't let him throw you off, Marcus. He'll come on sweet, charm y'to your knees. Then gut you when you're not lookin'."

"How long you known this guy?" Oso's voice was a quieter interruption than expected and Chibs just gave him a tipped glance.

"Nineteen and smiling while reachin' for my little sister's skirt." He hissed off into the room quietly, "That's how long."

Alvarez gave him a quick grinning of chipped humor, "Old grudges die hard, eh?"

"No grudging. Just haven't taken my eyes off him since."

* * *

><p>"Well," Filip slanted his shoulders back into the chair, letting his elbow ride along the table as he slid sideways relaxed. "you look well rested."<p>

The thin boned blonde just gave him a broad grinning, his sleek jaw lifting in a cocked glance of humor as he lazily shrugged, "High count sheets here. You're glowing yourself, Filip."

"Don't y'start." Chibs hazed toward him, jaw tamping tighter.

"You started." Gaige shrugged as he wiped his hand down the tailored trim of his suit jacket, glancing round the otherwise empty table. "I was just carrying along behind you. Where is everyone else? I don't get to meet the help?"

"Probably don't wanna refer to them as 'the help'?" Chibs waved his fingers up between them casually. "Comes off as rude. Bit conceited."

"Bigoted, even." Gaige amended with a smirk.

"Even." Telford nodded a quick agreement as he slicked his tongue against his teeth, leaning forward into the edge of the table. "No more unsolicited gifts, Cal. Gets you nowhere."

"She should enjoy it."

"It's already round another pretty neck." Chibs cast off leaning back in the chair again, waving off the other man's arched glance.

Blue eyes went bitterly brightened, "Didn't give it t'you, Filip."

"No." he turned a sharp glaring back, "But she did."

"It was clean." Gaige waved off in a sort of quaint pouting, "Nothing funny. I was being kind."

"You were bein' a shady little shit." Filip dropped his voice low, head lifting into the way Tig stepped into the room, Connor's steps lagging and begrudged behind him. "Keep this keeled even, Callum."

"Don't mouth off with me, Filip." The other man's voice slayed low and tipped with a grazing of dulled accent as he waved the two men at his back forward to the table, his head angling as they sat to his sides. "Y've managed to ruin my good mood."

Chibs turned out on a rise of low laughter. "How's that anything new?"

* * *

><p>He exhaled slowly through his nose, letting his shoulders drop into the sudden rise of clashing voices. Both tipping higher with the sound of something like home and his eyes went dipping shut as he let his head sway back into feeling as though nothing had changed in too many years.<p>

Everything had changed. And he felt his palm shunt flat onto the top of the table before he realized the movement had made it down his arm.

"County Down, settle your shite." He aimed the lift of his palm in Gaige's direction, flexing forward into the table and feeling the boys at his back go lined up rigid behind him and Tig. "Peaceable, Callum."

"This table doesn't have enough drink for the three of us." Connor muttered his body slacked back into his own chair, head angling into a grumped annoyance that managed to age him as he pushed back. "Need a minute."

He felt Gaige's glance turn back over him, the man's jaw fencing tighter as he slowly shook a blue eyed glaring between them, waiting until Connor had stepped clear to exhale. Chibs leaned into the table, catching the low lidded blink Callum gave him as his blonde head tipped. There was a silent warring in the younger man's eyes and the Scot watched the back and forth of it, catching the way Tig's uncomfortable shifting at his side carried to the way Alvarez twitched forward in his chair as well.

"Do y'still love me, Filip?" There was a tweaked heat the blonde's voice, even as it dropped into a threading whisper. "Y'did once. Before Kerrianne was born. You remember?"

Chibs let his tongue skim his teeth, "Stop playin' on - "

"Blocked drunk on Knockmany Road, you remember?" Cal dipped his head into a leading angle, his palms soothing down his jacket once again.

Just the shift of movement in the rise of his shoulders carried enough of a reminder that Telford leaned back as well, his palms dropping to his legs and spreading still.

There was no surprise in the fact that the younger man drew a pistol in his direction.

And really no terrible astonishment in the fact that every member of his crew drew back, except for him. And on to the Irish flanking Gaige's sides, to the Mayans down the table.

"Y'still love me, Filip?" Cal edged quietly between them, the supposedly relaxed stretch of his body completely still as he aimed a Beretta at the President patch.

Chibs exhaled slowly, blinking a darkened glance between them, "Now, y'know I do, Callum."

A manic smile trapped up on Gaige's lips, voice jaunting suddenly brighter, "Good."

The weapon swung widely left across the blonde's chest, his free hand catching the back of his guard's head and slamming forward so that he could land a bullet quickly into the other man's temple. The shot echoed them all into a jumping and the slanted shunt of Chibs' palm against the way Tig had drawn in his defense aimed toward the man to Gaige's right at a breath held moment later. And the grace in it was actually how quickly Trager followed his pushing intention and put two bullets directly into the other guardsman's chest. A seethed silence went echoing after that hazed over every one of them.

"Love y'too, sweetheart." Gaige gave a wink over the table, setting the gun flattened down before wiping against the blood that had cast an eerily painted pattern across his face.

"Christ." Chibs snapped a hand over the table and tugged at the Beretta, sliding it down the table roughly so that Alvarez caught into it as Telford levered harder over the table in a cracked up raging. "You're fuckin' mad, boy. Why? You just - "

"Holy fuck." Connor's voice slackened out astonished over the both of them from the doorway. "What are you - "

"They'd orders to kill your man Malone." Gaige's hands lifted in a dipped innocence as he ignored Connor's entrance, his smile still crystal brightened blue on Telford. "I should have let them continue on?"

"And how do you explain it to home?" Chibs slapped into the table, his body leaning harder into the worn wood of it, "Y'just put Kerrianne right back - "

"I'll find a lie, Filip. It's what I've always been best at." Gaige whispered, letting his shoulders slacken back so surreally calmly between two dead men. "Is it not?"

He panned an angry glance over the younger man, drawing his phone out to slap to the table between them, "Find it now. You call Fiona. Right now. In front of me. And then you'll call Kings, one by one, or I swear to Christ… I mean it, Callum."

Gaige snorted up a saccharine sweet laugh that bent odd, pulling out his own phone, "Use my own, thanks."

"You're both fuckin' insane." Connor's voice tipped between them as he stuntedly dropped back into his own chair.

Chibs let his body sack back into his chair, lips parted breathless as he realized that Happy's hand had been so tightly jerked into his cut that the movement had the younger man leaned half over him in the chair.

"All right." He caught into Hap's arm and flexed his fingers against it briefly, nodding as he watched Gaige slowly dial and draw the cell phone to his ear.

"Y'wanna chat with her too?" he asked as his empty hand aimed toward the phone.

"Fuck off." Chibs shunted back quietly.

"You white boys have some issues to work out." Alvarez's voice chirped up from down the table, "Didn't wanna mention it before. Seems like maybe I should have now."


	28. Chapter 28

"I'm sorry."

Alvarez lifted him a blanked glance, his face still calmly passive but eyes bending dark as he pursed his lips into shaking his head, "Shit's unstable, brother."

"I know." Chibs wiped his fingers into the ache that was very quickly rising up behind his eyes, building pressure into his skull and fracturing fault lines of pain straight front to back.

"He think this house hasn't seen enough dead bodies lately?"

"I know." The Scot broke the curves of his palms back against the counter edge, leaning his frustrated and pent up muscles back, laying his hips angled. "I'm sorry, Marcus. Hap's takin' care of it."

"Your girl out there heard that go down." Oso's voice carried up from the doorway, his head jerking up in a flex of tone, "She's bright, that one."

"She's solid." He lifted his jaw sharply into the assertion, a threat sheared through the cutting of his tone. "And y'know that. Lyla's been family for years."

"I know." Marcus flexed a gloved palm as he nodded his head into softening agreement between them, rubbing his fingers into his forehead in a way that said they were matched in a sudden aching. "You need to clear this up, Chibs. This can't repeat here."

"It won't." Telford murmured, banking a glance over the shorter man in a laced up nod of agreement. "I'll make sure of it."

The arched glance the Mayan gave him had him blinking a wealth of warm assurance, nodding as he offered a hand, "I'll make sure, Marcus."

"All right," Alvarez caught into his hand, drawing them closer, "I'm gonna split. Oso's staying. You let me know what you need from me, partner. Either way, yeah?"

"Either way." Chibs nodded into the half leaning hug they drew against each other, half smiling into the way the shorter man flattened his palm into leather tightly before drawing away and heading for the door. "Alvarez?"

"Yeah?" the Mayan lifted his head, turning his steps backwards out of the kitchen, still moving as his jaw lifted.

"Brotherhood minding its borders with you?"

"So far." The other man shrugged into a nodding. "So good."

Telford nodded quickly, "You tell me if you have any problems."

"Really don't like those boys, do you?"

Chibs just grinned as he shrugged, "Like 'em when I'm in the mood to start a fight."

"See?" Alvarez continued on his way out the door, "This is another one of those white boy issues."

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry." He couldn't end the apologies off his lips, feeling as though he'd mis-stepped somewhere along the way. "Didn't know it was goin' there."<p>

"I know you didn't." Tig's head banked to the side in a wearied swaying and he blinked up a solemn glance that had glittered on near clear. "He still here?"

"You kiddin'?" Chibs snorted derision between them and leaned down, letting his body lax harshly onto the rooftop beside the other man, his palms pressing into the grit before he wiped them against his pants. "He's gonna live in those back rooms for the first week he's in country."

"Lyla."

"I'm leavin' Quinn." Telford nodded quick agreement into the concern that had grazed into Trager's dropped tone. "Woulda anyhow. Alvarez has Oso stickin' tight."

"Feels like we can't help but step in shit." The older man's voice slanted lower in a blanked tipping between them, "Like it doesn't matter how much we try, Chibs. It's gonna be blood."

"Not stayin' that way." Telford murmured as he rapped his knuckles back into the side of Trager's updrawn knee. "Y'hearin' me?"

Tig coughed up a sardonic laugh, "When'd you become fuckin' Pollyanna? You're usually placing your final bets by now."

"When we lost, brother." Chibs hushed into the slanting half light that was crowning through the sky's heavy haze. "We did lose, Tiggy. Regardless of outcome."

"Yeah, I know." Trager nodded as their bodies settled together in a slackening that laid them both ridged back into the roof ledge. "Not everything, though."

"No." Chibs dipped his voice quieted into a saddened half smile, "Y'still saved my ass back there."

Trager gave him a dulled chuckle, "That was reflex."

"I appreciate your reflexes." Chibs turned his head into a quick kiss that landed against the other man's hair. "Crazy fucker."

"I'm crazy?" Tig snorted as he shook his head, "You're a goddamn lunatic."

"Can't give up every little thing." The Scot tossed off casually as he pulled his cigarettes from his pocket, tucking two in his lips and lighting one, passing it off before lighting the second. "I'd actually go mad."

"You just sat there and let him point a gun at your head. Told him you love him." Tig's voice chipped into a slight hysterical amusement. "How is that love?"

Chibs let his head slant back onto his shoulders, blowing smoke to match the seething heat and haze around them, "Y'think Althea hasn't pointed a gun at me?"

"Showin' her love too, huh?"

He turned Trager a broadening grin, pinching the cigarette up in his fingers as he exhaled once again and lifted it between them idly, "Do believe she is, Tiggy."

"That where it's going?" The other man shunted his hips lower, dragging his ass down farther on the gritted rooftop so that he could slant the break of his skull against the ledge, the cigarette pressed between his lips. "You leading or following?"

"Middle of the road." Chibs murmured into a break of sun catching through the clouds, flinching his eyes shut against the light even as he lifted his jaw into the drawn down warmth of it. "Makin' sure she can ride this out."

"How's this gonna end?" Tig's voice suddenly bottomed out and frayed up, "I mean Gaige."

Chibs felt the headache spike up back behind shut eyes, his head tipping back and forth in the clouded smoke, "Not sure yet. Been too long away. He's got more focus now. Smarter than he used to be. More practical."

"Think letting Malone live was a play?"

"Aye," Telford agreed quick and sure into the question, "on me. And a test."

"Of what?"

The Scot cracked his eyes back open into light, squinting as he turned his head. "My loyalty. My trust."

Tig gave him a wary glance, "You can't actually trust him."

"Not by a goddamn inch."

* * *

><p>"You tell me exactly what you're aimin' for, Cal" He shut the door behind him, a flattened palm hushing it quietly closed before he leaned weight into it. "Because you were never a very good shot and I'm too old to take a stray bullet, yeah?"<p>

Gaige was roughing a hand through wet hair, half dressed from the shower he'd taken to wash away the blood, the sweetness that had been tricking up his tone suddenly lost into the shaking annoyance of his jaw, "I don't give a shit who's movin' guns to money, Filip. Connor's still weak willed. Always has been, always will be. He's got no true constitution. He's gutless – but that keeps him nervous, which aides in me keepin' him in line."

Chibs blinked surprise into the straight talking, angling his head as he let his free hand hook against his pocket on a nod, "Now you're soundin' like a right soldier, Callum."

"Those two men were not loyal to me, Telford. They were loyal to the bloody fuckin' bureaucracy of all this. And if I'm the one shifting wares, I damn well need t'know my boys are with me and not the faceless fuckers on the other end of a phone line."

"And County Down's son has truly arrived." The Scot lifted his hands slowly, turning into the cleanly made up bedroom with a slackening of his shoulders, a bemused smile riding his lips, "Why the games, Gaige?"

"I like games." The blonde flicked him a devious smirking, turning so that he could lift the crisply clean white shirt that was strafed across the mattress, drawing it over stronger shoulders than Telford remember him having, "They're fun t'play. Entertaining. That's why they're called 'games', Filip"

"You like playin' too much. The wrong people get hurt when y'can't control your games, boy." Chibs murmured as his hands slacked his hips.

"Your girls are fine." The Irishman fiddled against shirtsleeves, rolling one slowly up his forearm as blue eyes met to brown across the room, "All of 'em. And I haven't stepped an inch near Teller's boys, eh?"

"Y'know I'm not trusting you." Chibs murmured quietly between them, keeping his tone tailored toward a slip of patience.

"Wouldn't expect you ever would." Cal snorted back, moving on to the other sleeve as he stepped around the perfectly made up bed, evening their stances together as he shrugged the strength of his shoulders. "I'm settin' up my own crew. Malone stays where he is because I like how he cowers to the both of us."

He studied the younger man quietly at first, searching over the way an aging had broached the corners of blue eyes, "I'm not comin' back into this."

"Didn't ask y'to." The look Gaige panned over him was amused and a bit conceited, a snort rising off him as he turned toward the bed and laxed his hips down, settling into the plush mattress, "You will, however, keep our friendship in mind. And I will have Sambel on my side, regardless of clergy and Kings."

"And what else? Huh?" Telford graced a step back as the man bent to retrieve obviously expensive shoes, slacking into the wall, "You'll want me keepin' Connor alive."

"Sure." Gaige nodded a slow murmur as he pulled one of them on, his head and shoulders dipped so securely into a vulnerability that Chibs just watched the movements, "Of course. And I'll want you keepin' the lovely Lieutenant outta my way. The day she tips toward becomin' a threat to me is the day our friendship likely ends, yeah?"

The sound of the threat had been laid toward the floor, but the actuality of it was in blue eyes as the other man sat back up, a cocky smiling over his lips.

"I'm quite sure of it." Filip murmured past the biting of his jaw, breathing into a sort of wary playfulness to match the other man's supposed lightness, "Can't guarantee her bosses won't be watchin' ya. Seems you've become very popular with the law recently."

Gaige let him have a full watt grin, nodding conspiratorially between them, "Ah, she's a smart girl, that one. Already told you some stories 'bout me, huh?"

"We don't discuss business."

"What do you discuss then?" the younger smiled into the teasing but shook it off when Chibs just gave him a blanked glaring, a long fingered hand waving it off between them as he bent for the other shoe, "You'll also keep me level with color. I don't care what color. You make it clear that an insult to me is an insult to you."

"I told you I'm not comin' back."

The headache that had been leaning on him was suddenly a full blown threat of migrained hurt, branching through his battered skull and echoing back and forth like the tinny ringing that belled between his ears when he woke too fast from a nightmare.

This was becoming too much a nightmare.

This was driving too close to the peril of inevitable pain.

"You want out of guns, fine. I don't give a shite if ya trade pussy for bullets. But you have a reputation to uphold, and you'll use it to my advantage." The sudden sway of Gaige's rising from the bed shattered the balance of his vision and he blinked into how quickly the other man moved toward him.

"Or?" Chibs asked quietly.

"Or I have quite a large number of options." Even the whisper of the other man's intimation was blaring on sensitive ears, "Startin' with the daughter who's got one class to go today. It's Thursday, yeah? She'll be on droppin' a drink at the pub by the time you're walkin' out the door of this wonderful little palace of yours."

The mention of his daughter was probably the most likely thing to make him bite back the red hurt of the headache, his tongue slaking his teeth as he shook his head, "Callum - "

"And it's two flights up and a left turn, three doors down to her flat, sleepin' innocent before you step through Althea's door tonight." The blue eyed glance bent closer and caged them up in a warring nearness. "Want me to tell you if she's sleepin' alone, Da?"

He didn't know if it was the implication or the ache behind his eyes that had him swallowing against the rise of bile, his lungs battering up into a lift in breathing.

"Leave them out of it." He murmured, not necessarily realizing how aching tensed up his hands were as Gaige smirked at him in a wickedly pure taunt.

"Do you think I'm stupid, Filip?" The younger man had obviously considered how tightly leaning toward breaking they were, his steps suddenly softly sure as he moved back toward the bedside table to lift his watch, "Do you think I don't know every move that beautiful girl makes? Fiona can kiss all the ass she likes and it'll stay my hand a bit. But don't you believe for one sweet fuckin' moment that I'll hesitate if y'give me cause."

Chibs watched the slow sureness of Gaige's hands as he fit the watch to his wrist, his vision tunneled by a peripheral darkness as he focused on the slow movements, "Taught y'well, didn't I?"

"Y'did." There was even a breathy surprise in the younger man's laugh, his head lifted and turned into a glance that almost bent toward affectionate pride, but it'd hardened off so quickly that it may have never really been there.

"Never taught you t'be so hateful." Chibs murmured as he turned full toward the other man, letting his hand rest into the door handle as he settled weight to one foot.

"That's a pretty lie to tell yourself." Gaige shook off quietly as he dropped his hands to his shirt, slowly buttoning up as he avoided the brown eyed judgment that was turned in his direction, "You made my rage a smarter weapon than a gun."

Telford snorted tightened derision between them, "And you quit listening to the part where I told you to let your head be smarter than your rage."

"No, I didn't." The swift lift of the blonde's head was intentionally mutinous, his eyes thinned as his hands paused completely in their movements, "And that's why you'll be doin' everything I asked of ya. Isn't it?"

"Kerrianne's the reason. Not your brains, boy." He knew that the step forward was a mistake, that it was a leaning that Gaige was pulling on him. That it was just exactly sure what the other man wanted. Imbalance and a lack of control.

He stopped his boots halfway closer, closing his hands into a sullen inhalation as Cal smirked into his pausing.

"Bring her closer, then. I know you've considered it. You think that'll be safer?" The whisper slowly gained a softly accented strength, Gaige's manic smile rising into the tipping tone, "Y'think daddy leanin' over her shoulder is gonna solve the problem? How so? I was damn near takin' your lady up against a wall recently, I remember. Would've enjoyed the fight she'da given me too. Built for runnin' ragged, that one."

And sure that was the breaking point.

When the ache behind his eyes imploded any balanced symmetry of his internal control.

He was just surprised by the fact that he'd already taken a closed palm to the other man's throat as he was the laughter that coughed off Gaige's lips. And he couldn't necessarily help swinging a solid weight down into the way he shoved the other man's lankier build down into the mattress, already drawing the other fist back and balled tightly into a painful gripping fist.

"All right. All right." There was a slow laxing lift to the blonde's flatly defensive palms as he rasped the words past the way Telford's squeezing fingers choked against his throat, a slinging of laughter still grating through his voice, "Just thinkin' aloud, old man."

He leaned the weight of his shoulders down, just barely noticing that he'd buried his knee into the younger man's stomach as he'd taken him sidelong to the mattress. "Your thinking is gonna get us quick to bloody, Callum."

"Thought you were out of the business, Filip." There was an inherent pleasure to Gaige's choked whisper and disgust had him loosening and lifting off the other man and swaying his racked up shoulders away, his hand wiping over his face as he tried to breathe.

Chibs turned his palm to the door handle, refusing the urging to look back, "Seems you don't plan to make the leaving easy."

* * *

><p>He caught the wide eyed blink she made as he dragged Quinn forward by the cut, keeping his fingers laced tight in leather as he leaned into her suddenly worried watching.<p>

"He stays with you while that bastard is in house." His eyes shifted over the blonde quickly, nodding into the unequivocal tightness of his tone, "Is that clear?"

"Yeah, okay." Lyla nodded into a hushed up quietness, concern turning her glance back and forth between the two of them as her weight rested back into the bar.

"I mean it. I don't care where you're goin'. I don't care what you're doin'." Chibs finally loosened his fingers from Quinn and caught them up along the run of her forearm, intentionally breathing his words softer. "You stay clear of that little shit."

"Chibs - "

He made a noise in his throat against her questioning concern, closing his palm against her wrist loosely, "And when you leave, he goes with you. You picking up the kids?"

"They're already home. Winsome said she'd check on them." There was a wealth of near on disappointment in her eyes and he swallowed against the bitterness in his throat, "What's going on, Chibs?"

"Most of it's already happened, sweetheart." Her face was too jadedly wise in the way she cocked him a long glance. "I mean it, Lyla. He's your shadow in here, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded tightly into the way she exhaled, shrugging her shoulders into slowly made acceptance.

Chibs squeezed lightly against her wrist before dropping the touch, breathing into the way she slacked farther back against the bar. "No clients. No studio today. Pick up some dinner, spend time with the kids. Doors locked, no visitors."

"I get it." She nodded into the quieted response.

"Good. You." His hand slapped out lightly into Quinn's chest, turning tightened into the other man's leaning as he aimed toward the back rooms. "His dealings with her are business related. That's it."

"Absolutely."

"You and Rat watch the other girls too, yeah? Any trouble and you two call." He murmured between them, catching the nod the larger man gave him.

"I got it, Prez."

"Oso's on him too." The Scot softened toward them, flinching her an apologetic glance as he lifted his hands slowly into catching her closer by the shoulders, "I know you don't like him, darlin', but he's a straight up guard dog right now."

Her nodding met his leaning, "I know."

"Okay," He laid a quick kiss against her cheek, trying a smile past the way his eyes still ached from too much light and her silent but accusatory knowing, "I love ya. I'll check in on you tomorrow."

Quinn's voice was a quick response to his backwards steps, "You covered, Prez?"

"I got Tig and Hap." He waved off quickly, aiming a point toward the blonde at the other man's side. "You just worry about that, Knight."


	29. Chapter 29

There was something surreally but legitimately preciously perfect in the way she was holding a half emptied wine glass along her abdomen, her head turned laughingly bright into the way Wendy was telling her and Venus a story that he hadn't necessarily needed to hear. The lay of her hips was slanted back into the break of the counter, her other hand braced flat against it as her head turned into his entrance, the caramel of her eyes too near to innocently accepting in light of the day's rigged up length.

"You boys are late." Venus' tone tripped over them lightly, a trepidation in her tone that proved how noticeable his swayed stalling in the doorway had been.

Ally's hand blindly shifted the wine glass to the counter and he blinked a wincing look over the way she was wearing her gunbelt and badge with her jeans, her hips lifting off the edge of the counter as she studied him. "What?"

"Nothin'." He hushed into the kitchen, licking against his lips as he exhaled and passed around a forced smile, ignoring the other two women as he turned his steps forward into meeting the stretch of her. "Just been a long day."

She was knowingly silent in the face of his too obvious lying, her eyes tightening over his face before he curled hands against her and pulled. The jamming line of her spine was straight at first but he figured he'd found a forgiveness when she laxed into his leaning, her jaw angling along his head as he curled on her. Her palms worked into the tensed muscles of his upper arms, the dark of her glance lifting behind him to the blanked blue way Trager was meeting her glance. He lifted his hands into a weariness of his own before stretching a palm into the way Venus was already moving toward him.

"Need to talk, Lieutenant." The words were rubbed along her ear on a hummed exhaustion as his hands shifted up her ribs.

"Seems we do." She lagged quietly in response, letting her fingers work into the tensing of his arms before she reached back, "I'm bringing the wine."

The dipped and patiently tired smile he lifted was warmed by the blink he gave her as he reached past the glass she'd picked up and grabbed the whole bottle.

"Christ, Scotty," she blatantly watched the pass of his hips to his ass as he moved from the kitchen, "you think I'll need the whole bottle? That bodes well."

* * *

><p>"May I remind you," she was all long and lean as she swayed on a heeled turn, her pants low along her hips and the belt riding the flaring of her pelvis as she stepped backwards down the walk, the bottle wrapped up in long fingers. "that I am an officer of the law."<p>

"I hadn't forgotten." He glanced down at the way she'd silently pressed the mostly empty glass into his hand in exchange for the bottle, wondering how it had even happened. "We need to - "

"May I also remind you," Ally dipped the words between them on a slow angling onto his bike, voice hazing lower as she sat sidelong onto it. "that we don't discuss business."

"Are you drunk?" he blinked a thinned glance into the brightness of her eyes under the outdoor light, "Did Venus get you - "

"Well," she swung the bottle between them as she crossed one long leg, drawing his glance down her boots and back up as she stretched her spine straight, "you're late. Third bottle, Braveheart."

He cocked a lazed glace over the stretch of her, the shirt she was wearing long in the sleeves but still tight right along everything else, "Y'know that there isn't a Scot in existence who appreciates that joke?"

"May I also remind you," she continued on with a lightened tone, keeping fingers curled around the bottle neck even as one lifted to point in his direction, "I have a gun."

He arched a brow at her, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he leaned his steps forward, angling his head over her buzzed haughtiness, "Your overall point, love?"

"Just reminding you in case what you have to tell me is as bad as the way you're looking at me says it is." She lowered the bottle wearily, hanging it to her side as she slowly shook her head, her hair loose as she lifted her jaw, "Because you look like…"

He cocked his head cautiously into the loss of her words, bending to place the glass beside the front wheel before rising back into her watching. "Like?"

"Like you're gonna break my heart again." She blinked an aching honesty in his direction.

"Again?" Chibs frowned into a sharp swallow, the oxygen feeling sharded down his throat.

"Scotty, you break my heart once a day." The lift of her free hand waved idly between them as she shrugged, banking her glance away as she breathed out a laugh to soften the words, "I don't even try to pick up the pieces anymore."

"Ally."

Her eyes slid back to his slowly, something in the color of them fractured like glass and cracking light, "Just… kick 'em under the table."

His shoulders dropped in a weariness that aged the way he was standing before her, "Ally."

"Hide 'em in couch cushions. Like loose change." She teased the bottle against him, nudging it playfully into his chest to rock him back slightly, a cagey smiling playing over her lips that said she was drawing strength back into her shoulders regardless of the vulnerability of her admittance.

His hand braced onto the handlebar nearest him, his head angling back and forth over her slowly, "Althea."

"Trade 'em for those chocolates I like." She took a swallow from the bottle but didn't loosen her eyes from his as he watched the wipe of her tongue against her lips after.

"The dark ones y'hide in the liquor cabinet?" He twitched her a bittersweet smile.

Her eyes widened large as she angled her jaw, shifting the bottle away from the way he was reaching against the back of her head to draw her closer, "You thieving bastard. I knew some were missing."

"I dunno if I can beat him, Ally." He bent his jaw along the side of her head, disregarding the aching in the way her voice had dropped and replacing it with a range of affectionate honesty that he hadn't realized he was entirely ready to give her. "Not the way y'want me to."

Her head turned into his, the tip of wine on her breath as she rubbed her lips against the corner of his mouth before kissing against him, "I want you to want to beat him that way, Scotty. Because it's what you want, not because it's what I want."

"I want to beat him bloody, darlin'." He countered sharply into drawing his head back, turning his jaw down far enough to catch the pretty softness of her eyes, "Can't change the way I am. Y'know that."

"I know." Her empty hand was fiddling the hem of his pocket and he smirked into the realization that she couldn't keep still, the bright buzzing of the wine lighting up her eyes.

"But I want to do it your way." He shifted the weight of his boots, dragging her up tighter into the way he was leaning, "Because I'm tired of things gettin' bloody. And right now your way gets me more than I've gotten the other way, yeah?"

Ally sucked in a deep swallow of the close scent of him, blinking into the familiarity of its heat, "Tell me."

"He's got me pinned. Need you to stay off him. Feed everything to Patterson but keep your hands clean, all right?" He slowly dug into her loose and lush hair, tipping her head back with a slow and softened pulling, "He's on Kerrianne - "

"All right." She nodded quickly into the way his voice frayed worry on his daughter's name, "It's okay."

The sure acceptance of the situation surprised him enough to search over the flush that rode her normally pale cheeks, a smile broaching his lips as he watched her blink slowly and drop her head back into the gripping of his fingers.

"You're adorable when y'can't hold your drink."

"I'm holding it just fine." She idly lifted the bottle to his side and sloshed it playfully as she blinked feigned innocence at him.

"But it's got your mouth runnin' over." Chibs grinned into taking a kiss off her pleadingly lifted lips, "Still somethin' in your eyes you haven't said yet. Have another drink."

She banked him an arched glance, "Don't tease me, Telford."

"Come on then, one more round. I'll join ya, Lieutenant." His fingers dropped and tapped the bottom of the bottle blindly as he gave her a giddied wink.

"Wanna take me home?" She asked into a lusted taunting as he drew the bottle from her, her smile flicking wider when he groaned her a darted look.

"Take another drink and tell me the secret you're keepin'." He braced the bottle between them, blinking surety into his leaning, "Then I'll take ya home, love."

"My secret?" Ally nipped her teeth along her bottom lip, both her now emptied hands rising under his cut to pull and pry tightly against his belt, unchecking his booted balance.

"Mmm." The noise roiled quietly off his throat as he cocked her a sharp glance, "Know you've got one."

"Caffee isn't dead. I know exactly where he is and what he's doing." Her fingers suddenly plucked the bottle back away from him and she took another broad swallow off it, drawing it from between them as her lashes lowered on the mingled up colors in her eyes. "I'm just not telling you because you're possessive and volatile and violent and every time you look at me naked you flinch."

He winced her a sad glance of knowing, realizing silently that she was right, "Tell me."

"No." She shirked off confidently. "We don't discuss - "

"Tell me, Althea." His hand caught up into the bottom hem of her shirt, tugging against it tightly as he crowned over her, "I want him."

"No. You wanna hurt him." She admonished softly.

His jaw flicked tense into the pinned glossing of his eyes, "You're goddamn right I do."

"Because you more than like me." She was letting her eyes drift shut into her sudden smile, intentionally not matching the way he was watching her.

"You're goddamn right I do." He kept watching her on the repetition, marking the moment when the smile broadened farther and feeling it draw on his lungs.

"Braveheart jokes are a little funny." Ally lifted her eyes and shoulders into a stalled up shrugging that made her seem young and brashly bright in her taunting humor.

"They're really not." He sloped her hair back off the flush of her face, holding it back from the way she was looking up at him.

"Better than sheep jokes." She nodded amusedly.

"You wanna sleep alone tonight?" Chibs cocked humor into the long rubbing of his fingers against the base of her scalp, letting her hair slake completely over his hand and wrist.

She damn near purred a pleasure into his touches, her eyes thin as she smirked up at him and laid her tongue along her bottom lip. "Kilt jokes?"

He shifted his hand and wiped his finger lightly along the line of her smile, exhaling yards of bemused patience into her playfulness, dimples twitching briefly into the depth of his scars, "Think I do love you, Lieutenant."

"You… what?"

It was probably just the sound of the bottle and the way it thunked sloshing onto the pavement of the driveway but it sounded like a car had blown up and barraged her ears before leaving a ranging echo of quiet off the house and back.

"Naw, you're not that drunk. Not repeating it." He taunted the whispering over her as he angled his shoulders down, drawing her head higher into the smirk he gave her.

"There was an explosion in my head. It was very loud. I didn't hear what you said." The sudden pulling clutch of her fingers into his shirt leaned him farther over her as her voice threaded softly quietly innocent but still giddy, a smile brightening the tint of her eyes, "My ears are ringing. Say it louder, Filip."

Chibs just grinned a chaste kiss against her lips, tugging light against her hair before he withdrew from her reaching, "Saying g'night. Then takin' you home, Sheriff."

Her exhalation seethed annoyance as he moved toward the house, "Scotty?"

"Before you drunkenly shoot somebody with a loaded pistol on your belt and three bottles of wine under it."

"I'm nowhere near that incompetent." She argued as she curled her arms against her chest, catching the way he glanced back in pausing.

"You coming with?"

Ally pressed off the bike, dropping to catch up the glass and bottle as she stepped toward him slowly on heeled boots, watching his smile meet her steps, "You'd be cute in a kilt."

"Althea."

She just passed by him with a lidded glance and a haughty shrug, "Easy access."


	30. Chapter 30

She did hold her drink especially damn well, because she was balanced and leaning with him, her breathing even and welling wine-tinted warm against the back of his neck – but she couldn't keep her long hands still. Couldn't stop wiping a lulled comforting from his hips to his chest and riveting her fingers down his ribs to the flats of his thighs when they came to a stop. And while paused for a moment at a light he grabbed at one before it could shift its heat and lifted it flat against his chest, exhaling the sharded and glittering pain of a blown out migraine into the way her fingers spread against buttons. His eyes dipped shut against oncoming lights, head angling to shy from the doubled down bright as she rose flusher and fuller against his back.

"You okay?" there was a completely unguarded concern in her voice and it rose just high enough to coast over the sound of the idling.

He nodded quickly, laying his palm flat over hers as he rested his breathing into the way she curled up tighter around him, her other hand rising up under leather to lay against his back. The bracing of her palms to bracket his lungs swayed something free in his head and he lagged forward into the momentary blankness behind his eyes before another rise of white furied pain broke up the shadows of closed eyes.

"You're gonna miss the light, Scotty." The heated curling of her voice hedged against him, urging into the way she pressed the tips of her fingers into his chest and back to draw his attention. "C'mon. Two blocks."

"Know where your house is, mo ghràidh."

"See? And now you missed it."

He smirked past the aching in his eyes and into the chippy contrary breathiness she'd slacked onto his shoulder, a sigh breaking off her as she rubbed into the fabric of his shirt. He drank down a full breath, checking either way for traffic as he lifted the stalling boot and dropped his hand back down.

Her chin lifted off his shoulder to catch the glinting of the red light coloring brashly over them, "Telford, don't you dare - "

The laughter that cut off her argument as he ran the light seemed softer than the brash pain in his head and her hands went back to holding tight, closing him up into something secure that he didn't have any legitimate explanation for.

* * *

><p>Maybe he'd too brashly brushed off her concern when she'd quietly aimed him toward a hot shower, a caution curling her suddenly lifted wrist in a way that made her seem all too delicate for the calloused run of wide palms. And he'd felt guilty enough for his silent shunting that he'd drown himself in scalding water until something had finally broken loose in the trapped up muscles in his neck, palms flush to the wall of her shower and head bowed into the tile until he could damn near grit the pain from behind his eyes and up into the crown of his head instead. The mutter of nearly muted and guilted apology dripping with rinsing water off his lips as he'd slapped the faucet off, a palm brooked still up as he wiped off his face.<p>

"Tell me what's wrong?" There wasn't necessarily accusation in the swiftly soft lift of her voice, but the hushing of it seemed loud in the sudden bathroom silence.

"Holy Christ, woman." His lungs tracked up tightly and he slapped back the curtain, exhaling into the way she was perched up on her sink, feet hanging loose as she pried a peeled orange apart. "Stalkin' me now?"

Her fingers were long and gentle against the fruit but her eyes were dangerous and dark in the way her head was angled toward watching him, her hair still silken and down. And sure, he didn't want to smile, but she looked at him like her mind was murderous and he'd be damned if it didn't make him want to just stand looking longer. Chibs wiped the wet hair back off his face, biting harder on a smirking as her glance dragged low before lifting slowly back upward the stripped down length of him. And he wasn't about to make her stop being so bold in looking. He'd always liked her way of unapologetic wanting - she'd never once been stumbling in making sure he knew she liked what she was looking at when the chipped up tripping of copper brightened her eyes.

"What if I can't walk away?" he asked into her lulled watching, feeling the murky darkness of her eyes still following the shift of him as he stepped from the shower and snapped up a clean towel, "Huh? What if I can't stop bein' the Reaper, Althea?"

"I'll drag your pale ass out, Filip." Her countering was so sharply made that it made the way she popped an orange slice into her mouth and sucked it before chewing seem surreal in its innocence, "You told me you were done."

"It'll never be done." Chibs shirked off as he wrapped the towel against his hips, snorting off a breath of frustration before both hands wiped his damp hair back again, a step angling him closer to the way she was still chewing on fruit.

Ally swallowed hard into the citrus tang, lifting the uneaten half between them as she shook her head at him, letting him pull her legs apart to allow his leaning between her knees, "No more bodies. No more blood. That's what you - "

"Gaige is bloody. Always and ever has been, darlin'. And he's got a fuckin' gun to my head." His interruption had been sour and bittered, eyes suddenly coaling darker as he lifted his jaw into the response.

The tantalizing lowering of her hand and the way she laid the backs of her knuckles into her thigh, orange still palmed up, it distracted his anger and shaded over the aching in his head, "Do you want me to kill him?"

He blinked a brashed up surprise into her question, drawn speechless by how oddly unrealistic it sounded in her bathroom as she let socked feet hang at the sides of his legs.

"The fact y'look like you may actually mean it is…" A true smile dipped into scars and he snorted out a short breath, "You're gorgeous, y'know?"

"I do mean it." The flattened out blank of her tone actually had him flinching into the watching of her pretty eyes, tracking the way a sort of feral protective fury had lit into them dropped his smile slack. "I want you out."

Chibs lifted the fruit from her hand, biting into the last few slices as she watched him with a suddenly thoroughly accusatory searching, "And if I don't know for sure about wantin' out?"

Her glance thinned as she watched him take the last bite, feeling an unexplainable vitriol burn up in her blood at the lackadaisical lethargy of his movements, "Then get out of my house."

He swallowed hard on the last of the fruit, slowly cocking his head into an angled astonishment, "Y'mean it."

She was a bombshell sometimes.

And it wasn't the way she looked to his eyes.

It was the way she looked at his eyes and right on through them.

"I don't give a shit if you boys wanna play big bad bikers and whip your dicks out all over Charming. I don't care if you wanna beat the shit out of drug dealers or rapists or - "

"Ally." Something in the sudden sharpness of her was rising the bright of hurt back into his brow and he lifted fingers against her rib cage gently.

"You can lean on people all you want. Start bar fights, sell porn and pussy, whatever. You can play badass all you like but - "

"Ally." He begged in between them, squinting into her force as he gripped into her shirt, "Quietly. Please?"

"Murder?" She hissed it between them, catching along his wrist and digging in, "You're not a murderer."

"Don't lie t'yourself, angel. That's what'll kill you." He dug her tighter by the wrenched up fabric of her shirt, leaning the chilled bare of his chest into the forward leaning of her shoulders, "Because I fucking am. And y'know it."

"Not anymore." She was suddenly just as fierce as he was, the full force of her palmed in her hands as she caught against his face, "No more, Filip."

He blinked into the flush heat of her palms on chilled skin, realizing subtly that the headache had banked back, cowering into the base of his skull, "Y'offer to kill a man then gimme a moral ultimatum?"

"If that's what it takes to keep you clean, I'll put a bullet in his head. And I'll do it on company time and Charming town's dime." The drumming of her voice went quiet but still spitting, "No regrets."

The turning of his silence was caught back by the force of her hands, driving him to face her fully. "Do I look like I'm kidding, Filip?"

"Y'look like wrath." As though fury personified was this lithe and lividly gorgeous little thing he could lean his shadow on, his grim to her rage. "Kills me when you insist on bein' so beautifully angry."

"Stop it." There was a desperation on her that bent him patiently lenient, "I'm serious. Someday it's gonna catch up with you. Years of Scottish swagger are gonna pile up on you, President. Is that patch gonna be worth it?"

"Patch is what I am."

The wince she gave him laid a little guilt between them and she exhaled into her fingers slowly stroking off his cheeks, "And you didn't expect me, did you?"

"Not for a bloody moment, my love." His forehead dropped lagging forward into hers, following the shifting of her hands as she stroked down his chest and let curled up knuckles lead against his ribs. "Y'shouldn't be so close."

"You brought me this close." Ally murmured as she closed her eyes into the repetition of an undeniably old but still young argument.

A noise came off his throat of simplistic agreement, "Can't seem to let you walk away."

"Because of everything else you've lost, I'm the one still breathing? That it?" It wasn't a worry in her tone, but a slowed acceptance, "Tell me you love me so that I don't disappear like the rest of them? You bartering to keep me, Telford?"

"Not like that, no." He pushed forward into argument, hands catching hers to still them and lock them up in fists into her lap, "But I'll beg, borrow and bloody fuckin' steal to keep you."

"Kill a man?" the lift of her head was sure and seemingly easy in its control.

Chibs met her eyes, "You know I would."

"You know I would." She nodded an agreement into the repetition, the movement so subtle but indicative of her surety.

He pressed their combined hands closer to her, letting them press along her stomach,"Gimme Caffee."

"You don't need him." Ally murmured back into his challenging, "Gimme Gaige."

"You don't need him." He gave her back the same even toned repetition, "I don't want you goin' there, Althea."

Her face was all angled lines and lean knowing as she scrutinized him, "You think I haven't been there before?"

"You're not a murderer." He breathed out as he intentionally held her glance.

"Are you sure?" She whispered into the way she pressed a tentative but slowly laid kiss onto his lips before catching his glance again, "You don't look sure."

"Ally."

"You keep underestimating me, Scotty." She slowly shook her head back and forth as he lingered in the mixed coloring of her eyes, "How's your head?"

Felt like a fallout zone.

"Empty." Desolate but finally numbing up when it came to pain.

"You hungry?" She leaned apologetic into the implied offering she was making, lips pursed before she turned those damning eyes back onto him. "I'll make you something."

He smiled weary into the settling of her dust up, nodding softness into the quieting as he slanted back enough for her to slide off the sink edge, angling her hips into his in an intentional pressing of her palms to bare chest.

"The patch isn't all you are, Filip." Her murmuring hung like a cloud before she shifted away from him, fingers slanting off him gently. "Not to me, anyhow."

* * *

><p>He didn't trust an inch in this moment, not completely. Wasn't sure that it could really last all that long. But far as living breath to stolen breath would go, he'd take it long as he could, watching the way she couldn't help but dance a little to the music that was rattling off the stereo she had backed into the corner of the counter. And he wiped against his fingers down his mouth and beard, leaning a slanting to the doorframe as his glanced dipped longingly over the stretch of her, a too big t-shirt and panties and immaculate white socks as she lifted on her toes for something. He didn't care what it was because it tightened up the muscles all along the backs of her long legs right into the curve of her ass and the simple stretch of her was more than enough to slag him heavier into the door frame. She unrelentingly but unknowingly destroyed him in her simplicity sometimes.<p>

He shoulda known it'd be eighties hair bands.

And he enjoyed it regardless of the fact the sound of it was teasing the edges of the headache that had finally starting sliding back.

"Quiet Riot?" he let a little laughter into his voice and smirked into the way she jumped slightly, her hands flattening to the counter.

Her head cocked sideways, profile striking sharp as she exhaled, "How long have you been standing there?"

A grin delved dimples into his scars, the brown of his eyes brushing soft, "Long enough to see the dancing."

"You're an ass." She seethed off quietly, turning her hips back into the counter as she lifted her jaw in a sort of pride, the music banking louder up her back.

"Got one more thing to say."

She rolled it off with an angling of her hand, aiming toward the table, "Dinner."

"Just…" He grabbed into the way she tried to shift by him, catching up her shirt into prying fingers as he shifted his steps into a blocking, "I'm gettin' out of guns and blood, mo ghràidh. It's what I want. It's what we've all wanted."

"Gaelic twice in one day?" Cautious eyes lifted to match his, her glance dipping over his mouth and back up as she tentatively wiped her palms up against his chest, "Now you're just freaking me out."

"And it's not just because you were the only one still breathing." Chibs murmured a tightened up argument into her earlier comment, "I still have the boys. Big ones and the small. It's more."

A smile teased her thin lips as she shrugged him a look that was exceeding the limit of coquette, "That was more than one thing."

"You gonna fight a man tellin' you you're important?" His hand snapped up under her jaw so quickly she blinked startled into the way he was drawing up her head, "No wonder somebody took a shot at ya."

He clipped her a wink in the face of her wide eyed annoyance, watching her lips falter toward a half smile as he drew her farther forward by a pulling of her shirt. "Quiet Riot? Really?"

"You make porn for a living. You have no reason to be judgmental." She teased into his mouth, laughing into the way he growled into her kiss, slapping playfully into the way he pulled her up and dragged her up along his chest, "You need to eat."

He grinned as his palm wrapped up her thigh, jerking it up to toss her balance under his control, "Plan to."


	31. Chapter 31

"Not quite sure how this happened." He handed the plate down into the way she was slacked sideways in the tub, her long legs and feet dangling bare over the side.

"There was some sex involved." She pressed her toes playfully into the denim of his undone jeans, flexing her foot against his thigh as she held both the plate and the joint she'd sussed from he didn't know where. "And by sex I mean… holy hell, you can do that whenever you want, Telford. I'll write you a permission slip."

A grin raked across his lips at the smugly crooning tone she used, his glance tipping over her as he lifted against her ankles, angling into the edge of the tub, feet into it at her sides as he drew both legs over his lap. "Words you're lookin' for are 'thank you, Filip'."

"Thank you, Filip." She murmured quietly before her teeth bit along her bottom lip, lashes dipping as she stretched her legs against him with one ankle crossing the other.

"And I meant the fact we ended up in the bathroom." He took the plate she handed back up to him as smoke lapped up between them, picking up the fork but still watching her instead of taking any of the rice concoction into his mouth.

The way she was looking at him was an intentional flanking of his defenses.

He hated that she could swing up on his blind side so easily.

"Toldja it was the wrong door." There was such a rising of lightened up brown in her eyes that she sparked up bright in the way she was smiling at him, affection and something completely satisfied in her stretching. And he couldn't help a little lusting pride over his skin at how completely satedly relaxed she suddenly seemed.

"I know which door leads to your bedroom." He teased over her, letting his eyes drag the angle of her bent into the tub, the fork dropped forgotten so that he could drop a hand to run up along the curve of her calf.

"Then why are we in the empty bathtub?" Ally chipped up at him before taking down another drag of smoke.

He watched her douse the joint under a quick run of water that barely made it past the drain, "Y'even use this bathroom?"

"Not really." Her spine stretched some of the prettiest parts of her out farther along his lap and he smirked over the way she let her fingers run her bare stomach as she blew the smoke off her words, "Eat. I mean it."

"Yes, ma'am."

Her head lagged back down slowly, eyes lilted as she watched him finally actually delve into the cooled food, the movements still too seemingly mechanical to be anything but a reflex of basic survival rather than enjoyment. He was looking too lean and gaunt from the eyes to his jaw, weariness wearing darkness under his eyes and a steady worry tightening down on his features even as his face was lax. She hated how dim his smile had gone under the shadowing of stress and she bit into her lip as she watched him swallow hard, focused on his movements as his hair tipped along his jaw.

"Realized something just awhile ago." She whispered as she dragged her legs from his hold, catching the furrowed look of annoyance he gave her at the loss as she curled forward, forcing him to shift the plate up as she leaned her arms folded across his knees.

"Yeah?" A lost and found smile tripped onto his lips as he studied the childish way she smirked up at him with her chin lifted on the break of her palm.

"You're very strong." The movements of her other fingers were meant to seem idle but he knew for a fact she knew exactly what she was doing as she fiddled thumb and forefinger against the undone button of his jeans. "With the lifting and the - "

"Got a point, sweetheart?" he arched into her lofted up tone, forking another mouthful of rice and vegetables into his mouth to avoid her taunting and twining.

"You are beyond competent, Scotty." Ally murmured as he swallowed, watching his jaw flex and his head cock derisively but silent into the compliment, "In a great many things. So many things that I could make a very long list."

The smile wrecked up wider as he shook his head, brow still arched as he set the plate aside down the edge of the tub, letting his hands break along the lift of her jaw, "Y'know you're just rambling now?"

The coloring of her eyes went hidden as her lids dipped closed into the drop of his palm, her spine stretching into the way he blithely let his fingers curve and stroke against one of her breasts with a sure forward shift of his shoulders, "Strong, capable, calculating - "

"Ally?" He smirked the interruption lower, drawing her nipple hardened up between his fingers as she flicked an undeniably fierce look up at him.

"We could own this shitty little town. You and I."

"Ah, right." Chibs nodded slowly into curving his entire palm against her, blinking his head to an angle before shaking it minutely, "Owned it before, sweetheart. Ain't worth the price tag."

"But it's used now. Wear and tear. Much more cost effective." She stilled his hand slowly, her fingers cradling loosely around his wrist so that she could still the heat of a roughened palm against her chest.

His jaw lifted cautiously as he studied her sidelong, "You stop bein' so terrifyingly tyrannical."

"Why?" The dipping of her lashes was the impetus for his momentary heart stop.

"Because it's too tempting an offer when you're so hellbent on tryin' to get me on your side of the law, love." He wiped his fingers up her slowly, lifting them into the trailing of her hair. "And it's fuckin' sexy, Lieutenant."

"You like the idea." A sudden smile washed up on him, her thin lips curving widely as she blinked at him knowingly, "You do."

He swallowed a smile into the accusation, shaking his head down in mild amusement at the lightened tone of her voice. "I like you."

"Let me help you." Her palm caught up at his, forcing a pressing between their hands that proved her countering far more playful than accusatory, "You know I can help you. Legally. Sort of. My side of the law."

"We're not - "

"Filip, you're not the only one in this bathroom who cares too damn much about the wrong person." The closing of her fingers on his had just barely preceded the strike of her interruption and it had drawn his eyes back to hers.

"You're so close." He let his other hand lift up under her chin, raising her to meet the downed dip of his head as his eyes brashed darker, "Just can't swallow your pride. Can ya, darlin'?"

"What happened today?" She questioned honestly, the hush of her voice suddenly so innocent in the way her head was still angled up at him, her palm pressing insistent into his.

"He cut himself loose from home a bit. Plans on settin' himself up stateside. Setting up his own crew and working things himself. Connor stays in his pocket." The wincing in his eyes told her exactly how much information he was intentionally omitting but she ignored it, exhaling into the explanation, "He's got somebody on Kerrianne. Somebody who doesn't listen to kings."

Ally nodded slowly, loosening them from each other as her shoulders lifted into a surety between them, her hands broaching his knees briefly, "I'm taking it to Patterson. Yeah?"

"Aye. Okay." He agreed casually into the way he lifted the plate again, aiming the fork at her sharply as his glance narrowed, "You make sure she knows you need to be clear of it."

"Of course." Her face slackened toward crisply business oriented, "Not leaving my ass hanging out."

Chibs cocked her an arched glance of semi amusement, "You're very naked, Althea."

Her lean face canted at an angle as her eyes glossed darker, "Metaphorically, jackass."

"Tell me you love me." He teased into a heated leaning, letting his glance linger down the front of her on a sighing softness.

"I will." She was wiping her fingers along his bare shoulder as she shifted out of the tub, laying along his back so that her breasts pressed into his shoulders as she rubbed her mouth against his opposite ear, "Just not while naked in my extra bathtub. It's gauche."

He snorted as he stabbed into a mess of vegetables and rice, unconsciously leaning back into the way her fingers tripped off him, "Coward."

* * *

><p>He should've known that accusing her of any brand of cowardice would lead to him paying over and over and again. And she took her due with the curling of her hand between his legs just before he'd slid into sleep, his hips jumping into the achingly warm stroke of long fingers. She rode higher up against his side, the pressing of the stretch of her limbs enough to keep him flattened back except the hand he raised grasping into the darkness of her hair. Fingers went digging into silken heat when she laid her mouth open against his shoulder, a moaning off her that matched the sound he made as he curved his hips tighter into the intentionally light touches she was giving him.<p>

"More." He murmured into the way she lifted her head over his, the look on her face like she was the only thing he needed answer to til never ever ended.

"I'm no coward, Scotty." She shook her head slowly over him, so confidently sure of herself that he felt himself harden in the soft closing of her palm, "I have a proposal for you."

"Ally - "

"You'll like it." She stalked him sometimes with her unavoidable heat, prowled right up onto his vulnerability and bit down with locked jaws he couldn't seem to shake off himself, "Trust me, Filip."

He let his eyes shut as he slacked his head back, exhaling into the run of her fingers as she kept intentionally slow touches against him, "Go on then."

"C'mere first." The pull of her fingers was gentler than he expected but he leaned into the way she was drawing him onto his hip to face her, letting his hand rake her head up closer to his as he groaned into the rise of her thigh against his hip.

The kiss she gave him was a gift of supposed distraction, her tongue slaking along his so slowly gently but strongly as she angled her hips into drawing his length into damp heat. And he let her slide him back and forth without pulling him into her, groaning and gripped into the way she was shifting her hips into teasing herself. He couldn't necessarily swallow with the way she was laying his length against her wet clit and riding her own rise of pleasure. And he couldn't help but catch against her throat, prying their mouths apart so that he could watch her bite onto her already pinkened up bottom lip.

"Christ, right there. Stay right there." She was dragging the words along his forehead with a forced shift of her head, letting them sink him into an unavoidable flare of heat as she trapped his full erection exactly where she needed it, her voice more than pleased but nowhere near as cocky as expected, "Don't go anywhere, gorgeous."

She meant the warmth maybe more than she meant the words.

And he hated how wrecked up his breath fell against her throat, "Althea."

Her fingers were a tripping touch against his hip that had him jumping into the brush of sensitive skin, "How long could you stay like this before you just couldn't stand it anymore?"

"A bit." He swallowed as a tired smirk tweaked at his lips, "This you propositioning me?"

And he was surprised that when she lifted her hand she drew his head up with it, forcing him to find the bright scrutiny of her glance, "How long could you look at a man who hurt me before you just couldn't control yourself?"

His hips drove up, forcing a surprised noise off her short breathing, "Where y'goin' with this, Ally?"

"Answer me." The curt control of her voice was throbbing him harder as he grit down in the back of his jaw, biting his teeth together into the way she started sleeking her hips into wiping his length along her clit again.

"Probably not long." Both his hands had her hair viced into the angling of her head, keeping tangled into the darkness that was suddenly so vibrant on her, so tantalizingly temptingly perfect in its control, "You're leanin' on my patience."

"You want Sean Caffee?" Her head lifted higher into the way he had shifted the heel of one palm along her throat, fingers curving her face to keep her stilled, "You get him at a cost."

"Which is?"

"Patience and trust."

"Althea - "

"Be patient." There was such assurance in the moaning she made as she finally drew down patiently perfect fingers, letting her knee rise higher on his hip as she stroked him into her and met the drive of his hips into her, "And trust me."

His lungs exhaled rough.

Just the way they had every time he'd hit the ground after something exploded.

Her lips crowded above one eyebrow as his grip loosened a little, "Sleep."

"You expect me to sleep like this?" He knew he was marking her up in the way he was digging her closer into the front of him. But she leaned into it.

She had an intense habit of leaning closer to things than she should.

She had no sense of what was good for her and what wasn't.

A pleased noise of agreement rose off her throat as she curled on him completely, "Like a king."

* * *

><p>To be fair to his uncanny control, he'd lasted a good fifteen minutes longer than she'd expected, his breathing cast forcefully evenly into the way he'd just spent the time rubbing the pads of his fingers softly against her ass and the back of her thigh. And even as he'd softened a little, each intentionally made back and forth shifting of her hips had drawn him back toward completely hard. She could feel the forcing on him, the way he was intentionally trapping and tightening himself still against her even as he kept his fingers in a slow back and forth. Maybe she'd underestimate his capability for patience.<p>

Maybe she just craved the ability he had to be so righteously strong.

He knew it too. Because the sudden swift prying of his palms had her jerked up against him, his right hand leading her lifted by the throat as the other ground her hips evenly over his, "Now, y'know you're a delightfully cruel woman?"

He was right, in a way. He was perfect in others.

In some dirty ways he was cleaner than she was.

She smiled her eyes closed as she let her jaw drop into the sure bend of his wrist, her hair downing against his arm in a way that had his grip softening, "I'm in love with you. I can't stop."

"I know." He clipped his fingers against her jaw and drew her closer down with a smile and a look more sympathetic than smug, "World didn't fall down, now did it?"

"Not yet." Both her hands flattened to the mattress as she leaned into his pulling on a hesitantly nerved up smile, meeting his kiss as he urged her into moving with the lift of his hips.

"C'mere, darlin'." The curling of his arms was so intentionally tightly drawing that he'd succeeded in laying her long and flat against the front of him, one of his hands rising to down her head beside his as he drove up into her, the other arm clutching her down tightly into him.

"I want Gaige dead." She admitted into the muscle of his shoulder, wiping her mouth against flushed skin.

"No, y'don't. What came next could be worse." His voice grazed off groaning as he slowed the way he was sliding into her.

"He's choking you, Filip." She let the words loose near his throat, feeling the sudden lift of his jaw and his hand at the back of her head at once. "Slowly."

"Stop talkin'." He turned the sharpened words into her ear on a tight jerking of her even closer in a flush of skin on skin, "Let me love you, Ally. Just for a few minutes."


	32. Chapter 32

He'd been playfully lazy and long in his reaching for his phone, intentionally laying the full weight of himself across her lower ribs and stomach as he groggily snagged up his pants in the morning's brightness. And she'd enjoyed the unconcerned and surprisingly relaxed weight of him holding her down, pinning her still as she stroked against his spine and kept her eyes closed into his answering. The grunted noise he made in sleepy annoyance the closest thing he was giving to an actual response as he closed his eyes into the full flat stroking of her palm.

"Da? Y'there?"

He lifted his head, exhaling hard into the sound of his daughter's voice as Ally's fingers curled up his spine, "Hey, baby."

"What'd you do?" There was a slap of accusation that elevated her voice, brought her ranging older than he'd heard her before.

Reminded him how much he'd really actually missed.

And he realized just as easily how still the fingers at the nape of his neck had gone, angling a pressing back so that he could shift his weight up into sitting, "What'd I… sweetheart - "

"No." She sounded too like her mother for a moment, "Y'don't… don't. Don't make it worse."

Chibs exhaled again into his daughter's obvious derision, catching up the drop of Ally's hand before it shifted away from him, "Where are you? Where's your mother?"

The curling of her fingers was brief but she still managed to draw away, sitting up as well as she leaned farther up against the headboard.

And he held the searching dark of her glance as Kerrianne's breath rashed out over the line, "Ashby's."

"You or your ma?" he wiped against his mouth, avoiding staring too long as Ally's long fingers wiped her hair up off her face and held it back.

Her eyes had shifted color and they were pinning dark on him.

He was uncertain of her suddenly, blinking into her watching.

"Both of us." Kerrianne's voice was sure and quick and refreshingly light in comparison to how dark his thoughts had been, "She doesn't know I'm callin' though. You all right?"

"I'm fine, Kerrianne. Stop your worryin' about me." A smile laced up his words over the line and he caught the quirked up lift of Ally's jaw as she watched him, her hand brushing against his arm lightly before she shifted to the edge of the mattress. "Doin' okay?"

His daughter gave him a breathy noise, "What's goin' on, da? Sambel boys are here."

"Higher ups are usin' you to keep me in line. You understand what I'm telling you?" He watched the stretch of Jarry's spine as she leaned forward from the mattress and turned into dropping him a softened glance.

"Why?"

His eyes lifted into the way Ally was watching him as she reached for the pile of clothing beside the bed, her eyes softening in color as she drew up his hoodie and smirked before drawing it on. "Because you're what I love, baby."

The longingly angled look she gave him was the last thing he saw of her before she turned and headed for the door.

"I mean - "

"Not gonna do anything to put you in danger." Chibs drew in a tightened up breath as he let his shoulders back into the empty bed, his other hand raking his face, "I mean it."

"Ma wants me outta class. Send me to Cait's for a bit." There was a distinct distaste in his daughter's voice that had him hurting for how grown up she sounded again.

"Come here instead, yeah?" He didn't even try to hide the hopeful smile from the way he let his eyes closed and hushed the words out, "I miss you. Caity'll work ya too much. I'll just spoil you to hell and back."

And he shoulda known it'd flack her up defensive, her voice going curt on him, "Don't wanna leave at all."

"I know that." He agreed into an unrelenting apology, "I'm sorry. But you're not goin' to Caity's. Hear me? It's no better there."

"Ma's right furious." He couldn't help but imagine there was a little bit of pride in his girl's tone, something cheeky and mischievous. Something perfect to him. She'd always been perfect to him.

"Don't doubt." He let off a noise that bent between breathy laughter and drawn out weariness, "You listen anyhow. Will y'think about it? Please, Kerrianne? Winter's warmer here. You can transfer for next semester. Berkeley's close enough to Charming."

"I'll think about it. She doesn't want me with you, y'know?" More of that cheeky chipping raised up her tone and he smiled into it, "She's thinkin' I'll love ya more or somethin'. Stupid, yeah?"

He flinched into the assumption and shook his head against the pillow, even in knowing that she couldn't see it, "Naw, she's just worried it won't be any safer. But I'll make it safer. I promise."

"Y'promised to come home too, didn't you?" And again she sounded like an echo of her mother's youngness, "And where ya been? Huh? Not here."

"Kerri - "

"Said I'd think on it." She asserted into an interruption that proved she was older than he ever imagined her to be in his head, "So I'll think."

"All right." Chibs exhaled slowly, "You lemme talk to one of the boys, huh? Keep your ma out of it."

"Sure."

* * *

><p>"Where is he?" He let his glance dip to her bare legs as he braced into a chair, watching the jerked movements of tensed muscles as she started coffee. "You tell me."<p>

"Nevada." The stretch of his hoodie dwarfed her shoulders a bit but he enjoyed the spread of blue against her back before she turned, avoiding a groaning into the fact that it was slung open and he had a fairly favorable view of black lace panties. "Nice subject change, Telford."

"I gotta deal with one lunatic woman at a time, love. You all rash me up on different sides." The slowly softened way he was speaking was a little less patience and a little more demand, "Why you givin' him up now, Ally? Huh? Why the change of - "

"He's a gun. Aim him in a direction, pull the trigger." The jerked wave of one hand shifted the hoodie enough that he could graze a glance down the bare center of her chest, lighting a cigarette slowly as she turned back toward finding something to eat.

Chibs frowned into the shift of her, letting his gaze travel the length of her hair as he exhaled a long round of smoke, "Obviously so. What'd you do to him that aimed him your way, Ally? Huh?"

"What if we aimed him, Filip?" She very suddenly slammed back around at him, the whipped frustration of her raising the angle of his jaw as he let smoke curl to his side, his gaze unblinking from her eyes, "And we pulled the trigger?"

He felt a flinching bite along one side of his jaw, "You're tippin' devious again, darlin'."

"I mean - "

"Know exactly what y'mean. You wanna aim him at Gaige?" He blew out a long round of smoke into the shaking of his head, letting his eyes drift the strong and long stretch of her legs, "And what if it backfires? What if suddenly I've two men in my way rather than just the one? It's damn dangerous."

Ally tucked the hoodie slowly around her torso in a broad wrapping, her shoulders tightening up into a sort of chilled inward tucking, "I can handle Sean."

"Obviously, you can't." he sharpened off as he stubbed the cigarette roughly into the ashtray, lifting darkly accusatory eyes to meet the rise of caramel colored indignation in hers.

"And obviously you've underestimated Gaige." She murmured across the kitchen with a tone that cleaved a sort of daring line between them.

"Y'don't know what the hell you're talkin' about." Chibs bent forward hard into the chair, "Don't you - "

"You're terrified." She bent a leaning of her own, the darkness of her hair tipping off her shoulders as she shook her head, "For your daughter. And your club. And me."

He refused the rifed up urging to cross that line she'd made, letting his elbows lean against updrawn knees, "It's not your place. It's not your - "

"Bullshit." It was the first lift of her voice he could remember in awhile, the first real drastic arching to her tone that betrayed how frustrated she was, "You don't get to make me fall in love with you and then just lock me away in a safe little box. I am not that woman, Telford. And if you think - "

"I don't want you in this." His interruption was leaning into the way he couldn't avoid watching her curl against herself, "And I don't want him near you."

"You can't live in two separate worlds." Ally shook her head slowly as she finally turned away from his watching, a hand loosely waving off between them as she angled back into the counter, "I want you in mine. Means I gotta deal with yours, President."

"I know."

It was the simple vulnerable stretching of her to reach for something that broke him forward, the lift of her hand that had him shifting off the chair and stepping full into her back. He caught against the oatmeal before she could clip it off the higher shelf, aiming it down into her as he laid the relaxation of his lungs into her back.

"You wanted to know if I could carry it?" She dropped the box quietly onto the counter, letting him rise full into her back and lean her forward. "Right?"

"Talkin' ain't doin'." The sway of his accent met the soothing of his hands against her sides, fingers warming into the sweatshirt so that he could catch it around her, closing it against chilled skin.

"Then stop talking and let me do it, Filip." Her tone had tipped more plaintive, "This solves two problems."

He laid his palms against the front of her, flattening them out against the fabric that smelled of him but would now inarguably remind him of her, "You wanna make me your gun, Althea? Point me at the man who hurt you and pull the trigger?"

She snorted a derisive noise off, shaking her head slowly, "You keep aiming yourself, Scotty. You want him. I'm giving you what you want. I'm the one who keeps telling you not to kill people, remember?"

"Not a decision I'd make myself. I'd take it to Tig."

"To Tig?" Her turning broke the spread of his palms off her, the rise of her shoulder forcing his upper body back as she swung him a look that laid out like distrust, "Because - "

"Because that's how it works. They're my brothers." His leaning back forward was an intentional pressing of intimidation and he locked down on the pride that rattled his lungs when her jaw just lifted into the motion, "You keep telling me to be better than Jackson? Then I take it to the club. Not making decisions like that without hearing them out."

"They're never going to trust me, Filip." Her head shook slowly back and forth, a near saddened wavering to her voice.

"They trust me." A hush of breath passed off his lips, "And y'seem to keep forgetting the part where I said I don't want him near you. Ain't gonna happen. I'll get to Nevada when I get to him."

"It isn't your place." And she turned so sharply on him that he lagged his shoulders back, letting his body lean from hers and the trip of her hair.

"Oh, but it is now, my love." He dug so tightly into her hip and opposite shoulder that she could feel her spine crackling and stretching into the way he caged her back into his chest, his mouth hotly pressed along her hair, "What he took from you? Ain't something to ignore and I don't plan to. Don't care how long ago it was."

"I got over it." She turned her response quietly voided into his leaning.

"I doubt that." He lowered the vitriol in his voice and bent his head gentler into the weed and sleep tinted scent of her shampoo, "Can't stand to hear me tell my daughter I love her?"

Her shoulders went so tautened under the lean of him he legitimately thought she'd slap at him for a moment, her voice drilling quiet, "I was giving you privacy, President."

"You were runnin'." Chibs countered as he intentionally fisted the thick fabric of the hoodie, keeping her crowded up into him, "You gonna run all over again if I have to bring her here? Huh?"

"Accusing me of cowardice twice in twelve hours is gonna get you a knee to the balls, Telford." And her patience with the nearness of him snapped as she shunted her shoulders back and drove an elbow into shirking him, "Get off me."

"Think I don't see you ache all over those boys?" He stretched to her side, letting his palm brace flat to the counter as he forced their nearness regardless of her stunted movements, "See more than y'realize, Lieutenant."

"You're right. He owes me." The side of her curled palm had lifted tentatively into his chest even as she'd kept her eyes turned from his, "And I don't see a problem calling in a debt. I've been saving it for a day like today."

"And how do you plan to keep him in line? Huh?" Leaning into her touch wasn't something he could necessarily avoid all that often any more.

And he sure as hell didn't know when that had come about.

"I've been watching him for twenty years, Filip." Her head turned into the way she was wiping her knuckles against him, her eyes coloring up at him with low lashes, "You think I can't bury him?"

He felt the smile curl his lips before he could tame it back, "You got a lot of darkness in you, Althea."

"Use it when I have to." Her knuckles knocked back into his chest lightly, tapping against him on a shrugging.

Chibs swallowed a sounding breath, forcing a patience into the slow laxing of their leaning, "Why are we fighting, darlin'?"

"Because you do this thing with your jaw that I like when you get flustered." Her hand lifted up under his chin so that she could wipe against his stubbled jawline, "And you bite down on your bottom lip and just - "

"You're not callin' in anything yet." He blinked a slow shake of his head, keeping his voice intentionally hardened off in the face of her blatant affection, "Lemme think. Just - "

"Okay." She shrugged loosely, "Think."

"Longer than that."


	33. Chapter 33

He was more than surprised that she hadn't stalled in some way from leaving, hadn't nudged them out her door before she'd left for work. She'd left them at her table with another pot of coffee made and an unreadable look banked between the two of them as she'd swung her hair up and back off her face. And she hadn't argued into the way he'd asked her to stay in touch, hadn't balked at the pull of his palm along her gunbelt as he'd tugged her back from the door and laid a kiss on her that had tripped more light into her eyes. So he'd watched her leave with such a simple smile, keeping it leaned out the door until she'd left the drive.

"You got that look, brother." Tig's voice was laying low into a relaxed rhythm when he'd made it back to the kitchen, but there was a caution in the Vice President's shoulders as he lifted his cup. "You're edgy."

"Too much to sort out." Chibs shook off slowly, leaving his own coffee to cool as he banked back into his own chair, searching out his cigarettes.

Tig's hand was sure as he slid the pack across the table, head cocked questioningly, "On which front?"

"All of 'em." Chibs exhaled a roughed run of breath, "Every fuckin' one."

"Lay it out." Tig nodded a softened support between them, taking another swallow of coffee as his blue eyes lent brighter, the affection in his glance going farther than the weariness. "Start with the Irish."

"Half wanna kill him and half wanna keep him right where he is." The Scot snorted off as he drew out one of the cigarettes and lit it, sucking down smoke as his glance drifted vacant on the shake of his head, "We can work around him, deal with him when we have to. He could be the lesser of two evils, Tiggy. We don't know what would replace him, ya know?"

Tig nodded slowly into the understanding, a shrugging lifting his shoulder and wincing along his jaw as he met dark eyes, "But?"

"He's gotta take weight off my daughter." Telford murmured low as he exhaled, the other palm flattening still and pale to the table.

And the brightness of the other man's eyes dulled a little, "You gotta get your daughter outta Ireland, Chibs."

"She's not - "

"Hey," there was an apologetic softness to the other man's voice but it was laced sure and tight as he leaned the interruption forward, "You know… Chibs, you know it. They will never stop using her as leverage. They're never gonna let off her."

"Tig - "

"Bring her home." Tig slanted off sharply between them and let the cup ding into the wood, his face suddenly slacked pale in the Sheriff's kitchen as he blinked into the haunted darkening of his bright eyes. "Before something happens to her."

He was all too aware of what somethings the other man meant. Daughters and their loving of them had become a subject between them that was ever serious and never left behind, regardless of whatever else had been shit-show-swirling around them. Because the other man's occasional despondency had the scent of something charred and sifted. And Chibs had an eternal and grateful patience for the sadly bittered way the other man had adopted a sort of protective loving over just the very mention of Kerrianne.

He angled a torn up glance between them, treading softly into the concerned swaying of the other man's tone, "This isn't home, Tiggy."

"You'll never forgive yourself." Trager's face had gone so ashen grayed that the color of his eyes tipped near to butane blue burning. "It'll kill you. And nothin's gonna bring you back. "

He blinked a low laying understanding into the way Trager was watching him in a sort of wide eyed desperation, nodding an acceptance as smoke twisted up between them.

"I know." Chibs murmured into the other man's intensity. "I get it, Tig."

Trager let off a snort of disbelief and shook his head brashly away from the conversation, wiping his empty hand down his mouth as he stretched back in his chair, intentionally stretching the length of his lean legs out raggedly. Chibs took another drag off the cigarette before stubbing it out, exhaling as he pressed to stand and hooked both cups up, heading toward filling them to give the other man a little space.

"What else?" Tig's voice hashed up from behind him slowly, his tone a concession of sorts that broached them back to peaceful.

"Letting Ally drop a hint here or there with Patterson." He nodded as he added steaming coffee to each cup. "Keeps her focus off us."

"The club or you two?"

"Both." Chibs dipped his head forward in a shrugging as he jammed the carafe back and turned toward the table. "Also gives us another option in regards to Gaige."

"Agreed." Tig took the cup he offered him. "Where's Alvarez on yesterday's meet?"

"Not pleased. But I told him I'd keep it level." He lifted his own cup in a sort of miming toast as he leaned back into the chair opposite, "Here's hoping things with Tyler and Cacuzza run a little smoother. He'll probably wanna tap Fiasco and Ryu too. Just to suss out where that may lead."

"Can you? Keep it level?" Trager winced into questioning it, shifting his shoulders up into the way the other banked banked him a sharpened up glance.

"Got some other options if I can't." Chibs admitted softly, the lines around his eyes digging in deeper as his features turned distasteful. "One y'may not like."

There was obvious wariness and weariness in Trager's face but he shrugged into a sort of forced comical humor as he shook his head, "Gee, but I'm giddy to hear it."

"Somebody owes the Lieutenant a favor. We could use him as a plant. Put him right at Gaige's hand and use him as a guard. Use him for information."

"You don't seem all too comfortable with this option."

"I want the man in the ground. She wants to use him to get Gaige dead. It's an ongoing debate, y'see." The Scot scraped his teeth along his bottom lip, realizing very suddenly into wiping his beard that she'd been right in her earlier sweetened teasing, "Gaige needs to keep breathin'. But I wouldn't mind havin' eyes on him."

The other man's jaw lifted into the way he slackened lower in the chair, his boots scraping hushed sounds against the kitchen tile, "What favor's he owe her?"

"May've shot her a couple decades ago."

Tig just panned him a brazen grin, "People shoot me all the time and I don't hijack them for favors twenty years later."

A mirthful glinting of affectionate tolerance broached the other man's face even as he nodded an agreement, "You're not Althea."

"Sometimes that woman's got a cold heart, Chibby." His Vice President waved his fingers between them as he shifted forward. "She's got some ice."

"Hands are warm, though." Telford smirked briefly into the charmed shrug, "She's had him on a hook since, apparently. Seems to think she can keep him on our side of things."

"You're right. I don't like it." Tig murmured on a quieted hedging, his glance lifting apologetic, "Not completely, anyhow."

"I know." He could feel his face slacking drawn, feel his jaw locking up a little, "I don't either. Don't like the number of ways it could go slanted. Don't like the idea of him close to her."

"But you like getting closer to him." There was a complete wisdom to the other man's sudden familiar watching, his glance shying tipped over the Scot's tightened up frame, "What'd he do to her, Chibs?"

Dark eyes rose into the question and met across the table with a resounding round of quieted disdain, "She won't tell me all of it. Know enough."

The understanding dip of Trager's jaw was short and quick, "Wendy and the boys?"

"Temporary custody until the full trial. Seems like it'll work out okay. Wendy's calling Lowen back for the actual court date."

Tig's head jerked into a suddenly tightened angle, a smile tweaking his lips lightly as he blinked his glance slimmer, "Couple years ago, weren't you and Lowen - "

"Hey," Chibs aimed a leaning hand his way, "wanna hush it?"

"For, like, two months. You went up and down that woman for eight solid weeks. Your Lieutenant know that?" The grin the older man was lifting at him was widely bemused, his eyes flaring fondness.

The Scot snorted out a sharp noise before sipping against the cooled coffee, shrugging between them, "Do I look like an idiot?"

"You do like some sleek and chic with your crazy. I'd stay away from the both of them together." Tig leaned into the obvious hash of teasing, "Women in packs can sniff that shit out."

"Thank you." He leaned laughter between them as he pressed to stand, aiming the cup for the sink so he could dump the last of the coffee, "Goin' to Lyla's. Checking in. You comin'?"

Tig was already pushing himself up from the chair one leg at a time, stretching into the way Chibs was heading out of the room, "Hey, so who's got the hots for our All American Sweetheart?"

"Quinn." He cast back on a grin.

"No shit." The lofted surprise slagged the older man's steps slower on a bona fide grinning, "Really? That's adorable."

"Don't embarrass 'im." Chibs aimed a jerked pointing back at him, "Doesn't think she's interested. Bein' stoic."

"That's damn adorable."

* * *

><p>"Sweetheart," he angled his head slowly, unable to draw his attention from the video that was playing on the laptop at her kitchen table, "kids are at school, yeah?"<p>

"Yeah." Her voice caught up from behind him sharply, her movements in the other room muffling the sound of her, "Why?"

"Oh, just, hardcore pornography." He shrugged a hand toward the computer as Tig turned out a groan beside him, catching his attention into arching the other man a glance.

"Shit." Tig hissed off, exhaling as he angled his head in nearly the same fashion, the both of them focused back on the laptop, "she's good."

"Bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism." Lyla's voice caught up behind them quickly and Chibs turned a glance back over her, "you boys want me to turn the sound on?"

"Domination." Tig corrected her quietly, his attention still drawn over the screen until Chibs thwapped his knuckles into his stomach. "The 'D' is interchangeable. Ya know, depending."

"In which case the 'S' becomes submission." The blonde nodded as she let her hand up against Telford's jaw, catching his head to the side slightly before she banked him an arched look and ran her thumb along a scratching, "He's correct. Unless you just include them all in the acronym."

"Are we interrupting your morning, Lyla?" He intentionally drew his jaw up from the steepling of her fingers, wiping against his mouth as he smirked, "We can get gone if you need some privacy."

"You're interrupting my hiring process, smartass." The slap she laid on him landed sound into the center of his chest and he matched the grinning that Tig gave him over the haze of her mussed blonde hair, "She's pretty though, isn't she?"

Chibs banked a lagging glance toward the still playing video before turning her a curling smile, shaking his head back and forth, "Clean and legal. That's all I need to know."

"There's so much more to it than that." She droned off tiredly before leaning forward, closing the computer quickly before angling back toward them, her hips and hands slacked back into the edge of the table.

"Not for me, huh?" He aimed a gentled smile over her, shrugging as he stuffed his hands into his pockets boyishly, the smile still dipping dimples, "That's why I have you."

"Yeah, but you don't have me twenty four hours a day, Chibs." There was a brash frustration to her voice as she shook her head, wide blue eyes brightening toward a wearied exasperation, "Something's gotta give. I'm watching sample videos while folding laundry and, can I tell you, if I have to keep running girls for both places - "

"Sweetheart - "

Her hands cramped up quickly into leather, jerking against the edges as she tugged at him in a partly playful and partly serious manner, "I'm gonna need vodka, a mega-fuck-ton of valium and a new vibrator, okay?"

"Lyla - "

"Bitches do be crazy." Tig interrupted with a broad grinning, nodding into the way she was still tugged into the other man's chest.

"And I really, really, need to get laid." Lyla pried on him playfully, her laughter tipping into Trager's as he finally lifted against her wrists and shunted her back with softly pressing hands.

Chibs aimed an accusatory shifting of his fingers at her, "Of all people - "

"Me? Me of all people? The both of you of all people." She slapped against his hand lightly, "You're both getting more spank than bank, all right? I don't wanna hear it."

"I'll make sure you get some time off, all right?"

"And last night he sends me home with the Great Motherfucking Wall of China." She blinked her smiling in Trager's direction, making a slow motion toward the floor as she spoke, "Muscle, muscle, ass, more muscle."

"Better not've been fucking, Mother." Chibs dropped his own taunting quietly in her direction, "He was supposed to be watching you."

"I'd even let him watch at this point." She intentionally smiled broadly into the way the words finally let a flushing against Telford's cheeks, her fingers aiming at him amusedly, "Gotcha."

"I'll have the diamond back now, thank you."

* * *

><p>"Fluff and fold, President."<p>

He caged a snorted noise as he leaned forward, catching into the laundry basket she'd shunted up into his chest, dragging in the deeply warmed and rashed scent of slightly overheated fresh laundry. A boot came up to nudge aside the paddle controllers for one of the games that was wired across the small living room and into the entertainment center. He banked the basket down, a hand catching against the way she was already trying to clear them, catching into her shirt so he could cock her a concerned glance.

"Y'call Brookie like I told ya?" Chibs dipped quietly between them. "She should be helping."

"I did. She is." Lyla drew the game controllers up into her chest with a shrugging, "She's fine with the kids but she's not all that keen on maid service. You fold, I clean."

"You - "

"She's also got a one track mind when Rat's around." She banked him a sardonic glance, head angled so that the mussed wave of blonde around her cheeks paled her a little, her still sleepy eyes suddenly softening as she searched over his face, "Why you still here, Chibs? Deep hidden yearning to fold children's laundry?"

"Maybe I do." He shrugged as he loosened his fingers off her, letting his hands drop into the basket as he leaned his glance from hers.

Lyla's smiled crashed full over her face as she shook her head, already rolling the wires around the controllers as she stepped away from him to put them away, "Bullshit, Prez. What's up?"

"Gaige been kind t'you?" he kept his glance down as he lifted a t-shirt, the laundry soap smell hitting him full force as he folded it slowly in his hands.

"Yeah, actually." She seemed distracted as she went sorting through the papers and books and toys and empty cups that littered the entertainment center. "Amy says he's actually sort of a gentleman - and he likes her. Not shifting around much. Not a lot of kink or fetishist stuff. Rough on the edges sometimes, I guess."

He winced her a shaking of the head, hands still on a pair of jeans, "Not… not what I meant."

"I know," she banked him a grin as she tugged a loose pair of sneakers up from under the table and tossed them toward the hall. "but the kind of sex a man has tells you a lot about what he really is, ya know?"

"He's dangerous, Lyla." He warned quietly between them, laying down the folded denim to the spot she cleared so he could move on to the next, "I mean it."

"I don't doubt he is. So are you, Chibs." She'd stepped around the basket, dropping onto the couch so that she could delve her hands into warmed fabric as well.

"Don't like where this is suddenly heading." He quirked down over her, brow arched into the way she was smiling at him as she lifted a t-shirt into her chest and folded the sleeves in.

"You…" She nodded slowly as she laid it to the pile, "are not a hardcore fetishist. You're not completely dominant but you have some dark moments, don't you?"

"Lyla." His shoulders shifted uncomfortably under suddenly warmed up leather, glance dropping to the way she was already rolling up a pair of socks, "You're missin' my point."

"I'm making my own." The thunk of the socks into his chest bounced them back into the basket and he snorted amusement into the way she reached for a shirt, "You're mischievous, a troublemaker. You like to play. You like teasing."

Chibs just rolled his eyes off her with a shake of the head, "Lyla."

"But you can be angry." Her tone dropped whisperingly speculating, hushed up, "Which means sometimes you just need to own your pussy, rough and dirty and dark."

His brown eyes widened an intentionally blanked glance over her, "Really?"

The blonde turned him a smile, enjoying the surprised flushing of him, "But you're also sweet. So you let her walk all over you sometimes, don't you?"

"Like a goddamn doormat." He confessed with a hazed smile, forcing his hands to busy back with another shirt.

The flush smile made her seem so damn young to him.

Too young to be so wrangled under the weight of every little thing she'd been ragged and wrung through.

"If she's not absolutely in love with you then she's an idiot, Chibs." The sweetened aching in her voice went brushing soft between them, "Is she?"

And he couldn't help but blink a truth back into the middle, "Thinks she is. Thinks too much."

Lyla nodded slowly into the pressing of her lips before exhaling, "So, probably?"

His shoulders lifted in a minute shrugging at the assertion, a smile brightening his features as he lifted his jaw again and nodded in her direction, "Quinn's got his teddy bear heart pinned on you, darlin'."

"I know that. I'm not an idiot." Her owned tone lifted his glance over the sure passes of her pale face, his smile faltering a little into her control, "Don't change the subject."

"She's a cop. My boys don't trust her. I don't even know if I completely trust her."

"But you don't sleep without her?" Lyla leaned back from the emptied basket, laxing her hips lower on the couch as she slumped a little, "From what I hear."

"Wasn't supposed to be close to her."

"You can't fuck the same woman more than a handful of times without caring about her, Chibs. You've been that way for always. It's why you've never lasted more than a few months with anyone. It's why you switch girls after awhile." Her palm had lifted to wipe her hair back, leaning her head into her hand as her body laxed even farther, "You cut them off when you realize they're getting too close. You're getting too close."

"Gypsy teller." He murmured into a lidded watching, meeting her estimation with a quietude and a sort of accepting sadness.

"I know you boys." She laughed breathlessly into the shaking of her head, "I know what you need and I know who you need. It's my job to know. You think I don't know that Quinn's got a crush? Jesus, Chibs. He puts himself between me and everything."

"Like a goddamn wall." He chuckled into letting both his hands curve the edges of the basket, leaning lightly forward.

"Don't be judgmental. You do it too." She leaned back forward, jutting her jaw into the contradiction.

Chibs shrugged into an affectionate look, breathing into it, "That's family. You and me - "

"I mean with Jarry." Her eyes were brightened up, shining and bemused as she looked up at him, "You find a place to stand that's directly between her and the whole world."

Like laying himself down between her and an explosion.

Baring his open back to whatever could hurt her.

Over and over again. Letting the Reaper do the guarding.

"Shoulda left with Tigger."

"Probably." Lyla smiled sympathetically into standing and pulling the basket from his hands, "How are you at dishes?"

He just let off a breathy chuckle, "Exemplary."

"Good." She nodded as she waved toward the kitchen. "Get to it."


	34. Chapter 34

No fuckin' angel. That's exactly what she wasn't – pure white, clean feather light.

She was all sinewy sleek muscle and uneven anger and maybe the Devil's hand had been the tiptoe touching that had made her eyes that damning color. That tweaking mix of too many warms and cools washed up into a mingling mess unending. And he'd always thought it a little quaint when older men had tossed about the term 'spitfire' but, hell, she did so at times. Razed it over him like a certain seductive destruction.

About a breath before she soothed on each singe like cool, cool aloe.

All of Lyla's estimations of him had been too spot on for comfort. Too close.

And he'd been chewing on the accusations and intimations since, regardless of how sweetly humored they had been.

It had made him think too much on her.

As though he didn't let his brain wander the long length of her often enough.

He liked that she was neither extreme point on the good to bad spectrum. She couldn't balance too many moralistic judgments on his shoulders when she was too busy conniving and contriving plans to meet both their ends up whole. She had a brain in her head that could very well be just as chilled to calculating as Tig had implied. And sure, maybe that did sway him a little closer to the way she curled him up against her best and worst intentions. Neither of them were justice or judgment incarnate – except that in ways they both were in reference to the other. They just locked it up between them and caged it in intemperate frustration. Then pretended such judgment didn't exist.

Neither of them were perfectly saccharin sweet and neither of them were unchipped ice.

But if he searched the bent-worn corners of the bigger picture, she was the goodness to his seemingly inevitable wrongings.

"Ya'll good, boss?" the younger man was still seated to his bike, leaning forward in a way that said he was too relaxed and not enough aware.

"Aye." He wiped along his bottom lip slowly, letting himself chew against the way he thought maybe he could still try to taste her past coffee and cigarettes and too much talking.

He realized in a stilted surprise that tasting her was a memory he'd banked often enough that it was an uninhibited recall, something he could remember if he closed his eyes and let his jaw loosen.

"You look tired." Rat's face was paler and stark as they waited outside Diosa, the slack and long lean of his face hollowed into cheeks that seemed too old for his young age.

Chibs banked a glance down the leaning of the boy, because in their combined years of experience he was still greened new, "You payin' attention?"

"Of course."

"Of course," Chibs murmured a lolled agreement, "so y'know there's an Irishman at your back, then?"

"No need to embarrass the boy, Filip." Gaige's voice was a soft tripping that seemed more redeemably patient than usual as he stepped toward them on hushed dress shoes, the taunting curbed a bit. "He'll soon learn."

Rat's face dropped a shade paler into the ducking of his jaw, forcing himself up off the bike slowly so that he could turn into Telford's side. "Sorry."

"None of yesterday's shite." Chibs lifted up toward the Irishman, cocking a high brow glance between them. "Y'damn near lost profit with that stunt."

"My profit is secure, Filip," Gaige murmured into a wired smile. "so long as there are angry men in the world. You only brought the one?"

"The others are meetin' us with Tyler." Chibs murmured quietly. "Figured you'd want an escort that doesn't wear stilettos."

"Appreciate the thought." The other man lifted him a broad grin, "How attentive."

Chibs tipped an angling glance over the other man and waved a hand toward the emptied van, aiming Rat toward it with a nodding, "You're damn annoying sometimes, ya know that?"

"How was Althea this morning?" Gaige tipped him a smiling into the question, "Well?"

He rolled the other man a look slicked blackened with disdain, "Somewhat irritable."

"Y'make a pair, then." The blonde was already leading easy steps toward the van, "Like to see that woman really shine up. Bet it's devastating."

Rat intentionally lined his steps up between the two of them, stepping backwards with lifted hands to calm Telford's glaring, proving maybe he'd been paying attention after all.

* * *

><p>She'd watched the interested and suddenly victoriously widened glance that the other woman had tipped over the paperwork, swallowing the smile and breathing evenly through the conversation that ensued. There was a line drawn up of enough information and too much of enough and she'd balanced it with a softness, accepting the questions with a willing of patience and nominal answers. And she'd left the Federal file on Gaige in the District Attorney's office, feeling at once like she'd won something and lost a little grace within the balance of that line and each step to her car.<p>

She'd seen the darkness in the window from across the garage, shaking her head slowly in a sort of saddened acceptance that a day too long had the ability to last twice its actual potential. The Glock was pulled and palmed before she'd really considered drawing the weapon, her shoulders tightened into each step toward the SUV until she stalled a few steps from it. Something familiar, feminine, innocuous. A sleek black dress bag hanging in the empty space of the driver's seat.

She didn't need to move any closer to the note that was pinned to it to assume she already knew where it had come from.

And she only debated opening the formerly locked door until impatience and curiosity and a flickering of complete annoyance turned her hand onto the handle.

* * *

><p>The jittered echo of too many uncontrollably blaring emotions – but the stillness of him, the stretch of his goddamn boots on her furniture – something in the sweet calmness of his length stalled them quieted. Because he looked like nothing but an attractively aged but tired man lanked along her couch with his palm over his face and his hips at a slant angle in the center of her couch cushions. She realized suddenly how long he really was in the way he was stretched as though he was someplace he belonged. So innocently open to the surroundings that maybe he owned them more than she had lately.<p>

And that startled her frustration, bent it still and turned it round to a sort of affection.

She let herself study the broad stretch of his shoulders, realizing that the cut had to be dropped elsewhere in the house and maybe the removal of that leather had helped the illusion of normalcy. The button down dark of his shirt rose and fell with an unprecedented evenness of breathing, something that made him so suddenly approachably comforting as she finished the steps into her living room. Her glanced followed the stretch of denim, the slagged hang of his wallet chain, the turned boot heels that she didn't doubt were intentionally resting on her couch.

"Late, love." There was a warmth in his sleep tremored murmuring that felt more like a welcoming than an admonition, too much like something she wanted than something she was allowed.

"I was with Patterson. Gave her what we discussed." Her fingers dipped the bag along the back of the chair, feeling the dark of his eyes on her as his head turned, long fingers rubbing his forehead. "You weren't asleep, Scotty."

"Nor neither awake." She thought maybe he dwelled deeper in his burr when they were alone just because he knew it made her throat flush and her shoulders dip into unavoidable acceptance, "Not completely."

"You knew it was me?" Her fingers wiped off the bag and she watched him watch the stretch of them in an interested squinting, his jaw riding higher on the arm of the couch as she stepped toward him.

"Got a belt loose." The offering lift of his upturned palm seemed too perfectly normal a motion to fit between the two of them, something that shouldn't live so warmly into the way she reached her fingers back and let him draw her leaning. "Squealin' a bit."

"You can hear that from the couch?" Ally murmured mild surprise as she straddled over his waist, letting him re-adjust the slant of his hips and legs as she reached back to slap the side of one boot in silent reprimand.

"Toldja," He grinned completely devilishly as he slowly shucked the boots into thunking onto the floor, eyes dipped closed as she settled, "I'm just a mechanic."

"Right, just a mechanic." She mused over him, her palm pressing his stomach as the other hand twisted his fingers into hers, riding lower into his lap so that she could lean into the way he finally perked his eyes back open at her disbelief.

"Just mind my own, Lieutenant." The smile perking his lips was made of pure amusement, "What's in the bag?"

Ally arched a dry glance over his response, "Mind your own."

"That I am." His fingers closed tighter on hers and tugged as the other hand caught against her waist, leaning her farther forward, "What's in the bag?"

"A dress." She murmured as she pried their hands apart, leaning her palms to his chest and her kiss onto the comforting smile on his lips that she knew was about to be unreachable.

"Sure, I know that." The shined up and mischievous brightness wakened his eyes a little more as he rolled an obviously lusted glance down the front of her, fingertips crawling up under the hem of her tank to trace warm skin, "What sorta dress?

She exhaled slowly, leaning forward as she intentionally linked a palm as far round the tensed stretch of his wrist as possible, the words obviously pried from her lips in a whispered way, "The sort that was left in my locked car."

The stacked riveting of sudden anger under the way she straddled over him did more for making her shiver than the way he'd stopped his teasing touches to her stomach. He was ultimately both legitimately startling and oddly deliciously strong in the bending of unavoidable fury. If she had to admit to anything in regards to the Reaper – it had made in him something capable of being devoid of weakness – she loved and hated at once what it created in him. And the sudden blackened heartlessness in his eyes was near on harrowing, tautening her skin even as she leaned closer into the warmth of his lap.

There was a slinking patience in the tip of his head that spoke more to his under-the-skin fury than it did actual calm, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Ally murmured, shifting tightly into the way he sharply broke his wrist down off the turn of her thumb, already lifting his broad shoulders as his hands spanned her hips, "Ah. Stay."

A brash and argumentative huff came off his lips as he shifted her back a little, fighting the leaning of her length to push back at her forcefully, "I don't think so, darlin'."

Maybe she'd made a mistake in lifting her hand toward the bitten down lean of his jaw.

Because his reflexes were far faster than she'd expected in his muddled weariness and the catching of his tightly grasped fingers on her wrist bent an ache into the muscle that she didn't expect.

"Stay right here." She couldn't help the wince into the way he stayed her hand but she bit the words out hard over him, shaking her head into pressing into his upper body, "Ignore it, Filip. He's baiting you."

"Yeah?" The snap of his tone made her blink and the realization of her reaction was maybe the first thing to bring light back to his eyes, "It's fuckin' working, Althea."

"There's nothing you can do. Not legally." She laid the weight of her chest into the rigid line and lift of him, forcing her balance into the way he'd pressed up. "Ignore it."

"I can't." His voice dug into her and hooked her lungs still.

"Okay, you're hurting me, Scotty." She murmured after a moment, blinking down as she tried a twisting of her wrist and frowning into how widely he flared his fingers off her in surprised and embarrassed response, "And there is nothing you can do. Your daughter. And your club. And me."

The same hand wiped raggedly over his obviously exhausted features, "He's not - "

"Stay here." She made pleadings on him sometimes, sure, but they always seemed so innocent of manipulation, always seemed oddly vulnerable in the face of her usual emotional instability, "Don't make it worse."

And he felt undeniably walled up between her pressing and another man's leaning, his face panning blank as he studied how concern looked on her usually strong features, "Ally."

There was a scatter of worry in the color of her eyes and the pale of her as she leaned over him, pressing him farther still, "Just stay, Filip."

* * *

><p>He'd blatantly ignored her argument to leave things completely untouched even while accepting her pleading to bend into a sort of lulling and waiting. Because he couldn't save from sliding his fingers against the bag he'd opened, touching onto white silk only momentarily before unconsciously lifting his fingers arched off it for fear of smudging even if his hands were clean.<p>

"Right size?" he asked into the way she stepped out of the bathroom and toward the bed, her hand wiping her hair off her face as she stalled up, studying the way he was balanced steady before the dress that hung on the back of the bedroom door.

"Didn't look." She shrugged, her hair tipping off her shoulders as she shook her head and crossed her arms over the white of her tank top.

Chibs bit down onto a resurgence of aggravation, "Don't lie to me."

"Probably." She leaned away from him and he could hear the shift of bedclothes and the dip of the too soft mattress. "Yes."

He kept from any answer at all. Because he didn't have one that would keep balance between them.

"Hey." He could hear the casual lift in her tone and knew it wasn't as true as she was trying to force it to be, "It's not really my color. Come warm me up."

His eyes trapped over the white of the tank and the equally enticing light tone of her panties against toned and creamy skin, the dark of her hair and eyes making the contrast warm and welcoming to the gray between of them both, "You're wrong about that, darlin'."

"I'm cold." She smiled and played a pout on him that seemed too lightheartedly innocent and giddily adorable for how lividly hot his skin still was. "Get over here."

Just the lean of her length made it impossible for him not to want to do as she asked.

"It's not that cold." Chibs groused back as he wiped against silk, forcing himself to look away from the warmth in her light brown eyes.

Ally made a quick noise of disagreeing derision from behind him as she rested her hip heavier into the bed, holding herself up by a hand as she looked over the still tightened up line of his spine and the flared dip from his shoulders to his lower back, "Well, I didn't grow up on an island that's wet and dark and dreary eighty percent of the time so get your pale ass over here and - "

"This mornin', he said - "

"I don't care what he said." Her interruption was drawn tight and clattered through the room on a deadened echo that leaned almost sad. "I don't want to know. Please?"

He glanced her back a quirked look over his shoulder, "Don't know why this doesn't have you railin' at me."

"Because I'm not stupid. There's nothing you can do that doesn't put someone in danger." Her eyes followed the lagged movement of his steps as he finally gave in to the way she was pressed up by one palm to the mattress, her legs curled up tightly to show how chilled she probably actually was, "And because you're gonna come over here and make sure he doesn't actually come anywhere near me tonight."

And that made him a little weaker than he wanted it to, admittedly so.

Because there was more honesty in her cautious murmuring than he'd expected, "This from the woman who keeps tellin' me she doesn't need my protection."

"Doesn't mean I don't enjoy having it pressed up against me, President."


	35. Chapter 35

It was in her moments that he thought maybe he'd pressed too much for some sort of safe lay of peace in his life, because there was a certain silent guilt threaded into the way he'd laced the fingers of his right hand through her hair. His palm knotted into the dark at the back of her head, keeping her head tipped back into the way she'd fallen asleep so tightly pressed into his chest.

If he'd been given the option, surely not, no, he wouldna accepted Jax's death as the cost for her so cat-curled up into his side and chest. He would've foregone her heat if he'd damn well had to - if that had saved something. But no, Jackson had made salvation something intentionally impossible in his case. He'd constructed his own destruction and waged a grand guilt war between the two of them to be sure it would come. He'd had no ability to trade this hushed peacefulness for his brother's survival.

But then, he only had a mind to save certain things these days…

His boys. And Jackson's boys.

And maybe… maybe more than, maybe likely her.

And that bred guilt in the slow rise and fall of his chest into her pressing. But it sank a little back out of conscious realization when he watched her soothed sleep, the long and lean lines of her face so surely soft and curving in passivity. He'd let her leg force up between his as she'd slackened into sleep and the pressing was numbing the muscle in one thigh but he ignored it, just as he ignored the fact that his right bicep was tingling mutinous too. But the way she'd curled her hands up so loose and harmlessly innocuous between them, three long fingers cradled up in beads, had him reflexively curving the other hand against the slant of her jaw to cage her head upturned.

And it was her. More than a maybe.

It was his brothers, Jackie's sons, and her.

And the way the realization slapped him chilled reminded him of white silk and an unspoken threat, a taunting tailored specifically to him and his wanting of her.

Just a dress. A dress was something so perfectly expected in every day romance.

It was exactly what he'd brashly told her he'd never give her.

Romance or even an expectation of normalcy.

And even if he'd said so while making a point that seemed lost now - the subtlety of it drove between his ribs and nailed him right into the lungs – that even the Irishman had known it was her before he'd found the moment and means to admit it to himself.

"Ally." He laid his lips brushing along her warmed forehead, keeping his tone whispered hush above one eyebrow.

The more paranoid parcel of him didn't like that she slept so heavily sometimes - except that he loved it a bit. Because the only time he knew her to be so relentlessly unavailably unconscious to the world was when she begged him into curling her this close. And it didn't at all last when he slanted away from her, and she was awfully damn aware when she was alone in her bed.

"C'mon, darlin'." He laid the pad of his thumb under her jaw, fingers bracing her cheek as he lifted her head back into his other hand and watched the flinch that finally tightened her muscles start around her eyes and rivet down her. "Hey."

"Don't." It wasn't anger crowding her suddenly dark eyes as it was a sort of childish petulance, her fingers jerking into and tugging down on his beads as her head ducked toward his throat. "Not nice, Scotty."

"M'not all that nice, baby." He responded quietly, curling her head back into his spread palm, leaning her into his open hand. "Look at me."

"I look at you all the time." The teasing tweaked her lips into a lazily cradled smile as she blinked at him, lashes held low on dark eyes. "You woke me up for a staring contest?"

"So maybe I did." He whispered the velveted answering.

"You're crazy." She blinked her jaw down into his touching, letting her eyes dip back completely closed as she shifted her hips tighter up against his and tugged into his beads to pull closer.

"So maybe I am." He admitted. "And so are you."

"I know." The jaunty shrugging she gave him was hazed over with a laughing tone as she curled back into his chest, leaning her face into his throat. "You seem to like it."

"Gonna put that dress on?" He leaned his mouth down into an urging, drawing her back up into his leaning with a slow kiss.

"I am not." She was suddenly far more awake and aware than he'd assumed, a glint hitting her eyes right smack along with the accusation in her tone. "I will not."

"Sure y'don't want it?" Chibs asked into catching her glance, lifting his jaw into a supposedly passive questioning. "You can - "

"I don't want anything from him, Filip. Don't do this." The jerk she raked against his beads tweaked on him. "Don't make this into something it's not."

"You let me take care of it then, yeah?" He smiled into it with a darkened lilting to his whisper, the sudden but subtly leaned shifting of his weight laying her back so that her head pressed his arm flat to the mattress into numbing.

Ally cocked him a glance that brightened up her eyes, "You gonna wear it?"

"Cute." He mocked over her sarcastically before laying his mouth against hers, digging her head up hard into the drive of his tongue between her lips.

If he'd ever seemed completely sure in anything in regards to her, it had always been kissing her. He always made it seem like it was the only option he had in the whole wide world.

She slacked intentionally weak under his stretching, letting him use the other hand to grip into her thigh and part her legs so he could angle between them with such a sure and easy shifting that she knew it was reflexive and annoyingly practiced. She ignored it though, letting his mouth grace down her throat as he let his weight sink into her carefully. His lips stopped their movement but his free hand took over a slow sliding and stroking and what seemed a conscious memorization of each inched stretch of her from her throat to her pelvic bone.

"He concerns me." She admitted sullenly as she stared at the shadowed ceiling, letting her fingers scrape her hair back off her face as he wiped his palm along the worn fabric of her tank, the movement suddenly stilled.

"Not letting him - "

"I'm not afraid of him." She broke raggedly over the intentionally gentled way he was trying to console, "I'm concerned. He forced himself into my kitchen. He broke into my car. He's not just leaving love notes, Scotty."

The lift of his head was slow and intentionally patient, something in the slinging of her tone smacking of more than worry or concern, "Ally. He's not touchin' ya."

"He already has. He knew my dress size. How many men can just guess something like that?" She shifted so suddenly that he moved his shoulders up with bridged arms, surprised as he watched her lean over the bedside table to tug a paper from under her badge, "Has he been in this house when I'm not here? I... I can't be sure."

"He's not going to - "

The way she slacked back and laid the note against her lower ribs stalled up his breathing, her name scrawled elegantly across the paper in a sort of visual invitation that instantly had his stomach welling bile.

"You can't be sure. I can't be sure." She whispered worriedly as she flipped the paper over, letting him read the shortly worded invitation to enjoy the gift that had been left for her.

"Where was this?" he laid his palm flat over the words, blocking them from their sight as he lifted her a deliberately forceful tone.

"On the dress." She admitted quietly.

And his eyes rising on hers were the back up to the definitive order of his tone, "I want you at TM tomorrow."

"Filip - "

"I mean it." He'd shifted into sitting up and curled the paper crumpled into his fist in the same movement, "Boys and I are getting some work cleared in the garage and then we're going through the clubhouse with Oswald. Getting some small time stuff done on our own. I want you in house."

She lifted on her elbows enough to match his watching, knee drawn up into the way he'd angled sidelong to her legs. "I have things to do tomorrow. I'm not sitting in a garage all day; it's my only day off."

"I'll make it a short day." His empty palm squeezed lightly against her knee before he shot the paper toward the garbage, watching as it arced into the basket. "I'll help."

"You're gonna run to the bank and help me grocery shop? You wanna pick out furniture while we're at it? Oh, wait…" Her voice drawled off into a sarcastic dryness that had him slinking her a petulant glance.

She watched him exhale the impatience before he shook his head, jaw lifting into the way he blinked, "Can't lose you too, Ally."

"Jesus." Her shoulders sank flush into the way he'd dropped such a weakened admission between them, "That's not fair."

"Why y'think I don't want Caffee close to you at the same time, huh?"

"I can use Sean." She murmured between them on a pliant note, sitting up farther into the bed as they braced slowly apart, cautious and slow in their combined movements. "You have to trust me. I can do this."

"I can't." His voice dragged sharp, "And I can't keep Kerrianne close, but you? You I can drag up and cover when shit falls apart. Done it before. I'll sure as hell do it again."

"I know you would." She admitted into a saddened softness that didn't seem right in between them, so feminine and innocently domestically soft, "Wish you'd let me do the same for you."

"Althea."

He knew she was blocking at him before she pushed away from him, the sudden paleness of her in too much white creating a bright contrast to the way the one light shadowed the rest of the room. He watched her rise from the bed, her hands wrung up against her arms as she turned a look over him that bent toward defeated. One shake of her head and she was swallowing into the way she was standing so awkwardly far from him.

"You don't understand. I can use Caffee in a way that saves the both of us. I've used him before as an informant." She rattled the words off in a quick dumping of breath, turning to grab at the short satin robe that was pooled in one of her chairs, the slip of it always grazing heat down the center of his chest. "If he reports to Patterson then she's going to have another source that clears you of the gun business."

"An informant?" Chibs slacked his hips to the edge of the bed, hand wiping along his face as he watched her, "So he's a rat."

"He was a paid informant." She slung back in a tightened tone, drawing the fabric over her shoulders in a way that quickly offended his eyes, annoyed the part of him that wanted to keep watching the livid tautness of her shoulders.

He ignored the slide of the fabric, knowing the whiter silk of the dress was only feet away to the left of his vision, "He's a - "

"Yes, okay? He's a rat." Her hands jerked the belt into a hard knot, laying the creamy color over the lightness of her skin as her hips slanted in a suddenly sturdier and harder stance, "He shot me, Filip. In front of my family. What the hell did you expect from a man like that?"

He lifted his head into watching her, realizing that somehow and somewhere she'd drawn something stronger back up the line of her spine, the very shifting of her stance making her a livewire tight, "Y'want me to okay somethin' like this without talkin' to the boys? Told you I needed to - "

"And I didn't argue." She aimed a hand at him quickly, her hair looking wildly mussed and deliciously tangled. "I didn't."

He shook his head against the way her rising writhing annoyance pulled at the heat in his gut, "And let it play t'Patterson? I become a rat. Not happenin', darlin'. I'm still who I am. I'm not taking my business to the law."

"Really?" Her face lit with a smile that was anything but humored. "Just your dick?"

"Hey." The length of him was so much more enticing when it was tightened up in her direction and she watched the suddenly leaned prowling of his body come toward her, "They're my family. Y'know my loyalty is - "

"To your family." She leaned just as formidably into him as he'd stepped into her and she caught the way it ranged his shoulders up higher to span his height over hers, "Not to me. Because they'll never accept me as family."

"That's not true." The sway of his accent actually dipped a little apologetic into the softness of his countering.

A huffed breath parted her lips as she shook her head slowly, aiming her hand out into the spread of his chest so that she could wipe on skin, "That's completely true. And you know it. Half those boys wanna see me burn, Filip. Just because of who I am."

"Ya don't make it all that easy to change their minds, love." His point was made with a tone that had been stripped of caution and patience, bared toward cool and controlled, "You keep the distance much as them."

"You keep me at a distance." She murmured into the way his hand was closing against the knot in her robe, gripping around it.

"No." Chibs angled quietly into the whispered argument, "Did I not just tell you I wanted y'with me tomorrow?"

Another huffed noise of derision came off her, "Because you think I'm in danger."

"Because you fucking are." The control he'd so intricately laced around each swing of his accent had thread-snapped clear and his voice shunted over her with the same jerking as the way he tugged her tighter by a fisted handful of satin, "And so's my daughter. Jesus Christ, Althea, he's not playin' at this. It's fucking real. It exists and it's legitimate. Do you understand that?"

"The dress hanging in my car was a pretty solid goddamn clue." And the way her tone had snapped toward sardonic and near on cruel had his other hand lifting along her jaw, fingers splayed up under it and toward her throat in a shift that he continually used to keep her attention on him and what he wanted.

She hated that it didn't scare her more.

Because the motion should-have-would-have put a fear in a smarter woman's head.

"Get back in that bed, Althea." His eyes had lit up darkly as he'd lifted his jaw and hers with the force of his palm.

It never scared her so much as made her burn up in his touching, throat flushed. Because she knew he'd hurt himself before he was legitimately violent with her – not in an abusive way. This was their battle. This was their play. Their push and pull and tear-me-to-pieces. This was the way two people like them could love without weakness. This was conquest and surrender, victory and subjugation - the players just changed parts sometimes. They traded who won and lost and she wasn't quite sure yet whose turn it was to give in.

"Don't start your Reaper bullshit with me, Scotty. It's not sexy when you're just using it to be an ass." She whispered it so quietly that his hand loosened a little in its holding, head cocked as he listened to her rattled rage. "You're just a man. You don't get to send me to bed without dinner, President. Grow up."

"I told you t'get back in bed." He murmured his mouth closer to hers than she'd expected.

She refused the peace-keeping kiss he was offering, biting out a retort instead, "And I'm telling you to fuck off."

"You want my loyalty, Lieutenant?" His hand tightened up again, lifting her head higher into his leaning as he pulled them flush and full against each other, "That what this is about? You jealous?"

"This is about your past walking into my house and looking at me like a toy he can play with just to piss you off." Ally argued into a hushing, the sudden thrust of his hips driving her into backwards steps that he continued, leaning her back flat into the wall beside her bathroom door as her leg got caught up by the chair.

"And y'know why." His palm sloped off the knot of satin and stroked so intently up under the fabric that she blinked her eyes shut into the rubbing of long fingers against the crotch of her underwear, feeling his head crowd closer to hers as she made a noise of agreed assent in her throat.

She let her eyes lift open and bright into the way he was watching her face as he kept the rhythmic stroking of fabric, the hard break of his palm pressing her back, "Because you're a possessive and impatient son of a bitch."

"Because you're what I love. Just the same as usin' Kerrianne." The murmuring just barely preceded the dip of his hand into her panties and his shoulders went higher with his insistent lifting of her jaw, body angling her flat up against the wall as he stroked his fingers into wet heat, "And he knew it the moment he saw my face when I walked into that kitchen. Get to bed before I put y'there myself."

"What if it is about loyalty?" A whimpered noise caught up in her throat, eyes dropping shut as she intentionally ground her skull back into the wall and let him hook his fingers up into her, "What if it's what they have that I don't get?"

"Bed." His whisper wiped along her jaw with the same slowness as his thumb slicking along her clit.

Ally bit down on his ability to break her heat open with just his perfect hands and an angry whisper, "Go to hell, Scotty."

"Sure am." The agreement came warmly and lightly tripped along her lips, teasing her with a kiss that he wasn't giving into yet, "Come with me, Lieutenant. Won't be the same without ya."

"Christ, I hate you." There was a tinting of affection in her voice and eyes that caught his teasing and played it back like a repetitive record hitch.

"Be kind." Chibs murmured as he worked his fingers into and out of her, watching the way her tongue and teeth skated and grazed her lips.

"I really really hate you." She whispered into a slow shake of her head that negated her words.

"Ah," he hooked a finger deeper into her and raised his jaw into warning, "Kinder than that."

"I hate your cute fucking accent. And how tall you are." She softened between them, the ramping of her breathing making the words drive rushed and hush, "And the way you smell like leather and oil and cheap whiskey all the goddamn time."

"Gettin' warmer." He agreed into his thumb circling her clit. "Get to bed, darlin'."

Ally thinned him a smile just before her throat braced up a moan, "I despise the constant pet names."

"That's an obvious lie. Warm and wet and ready, aren't ya?" His kisses were lining along her jaw in such an innocently intimate warmth, "Come lay with me, mo ghràidh. You're losing your edge."

"I loathe the Reaper."

"But you're what he loves, darlin'. So beautifully angry all the day long." The grinding sweetness that was in his throat made her weak enough that she let him tug her close with his fingers still deep into her, "So wet and riled right up. Christ, Althea, you light up when I touch you."

The lay of her name on his accented tongue always jump-stop-started her heart and lungs.

It was his turn to win again.

It was her give in and give up round, "God, I love your hands."

"There you are." He finally smiled into the stroke of her palms along old wounds, her hands flat against scars, "There's my fury. Thought maybe I'd lost her."

"You know I love you." She tightened her palms on him, gripping him tighter into the way she pressed their foreheads together. "Why do you make me admit it?"

"Y'know I'm loyal to you." He chipped back into licking against her bottom lip, drawing her reaching for another swipe of his tongue as he lifted her leg, shunting it up onto the chair she was skirted around, "Why do you make me prove it?"

She slacked off a moan as he started his mouth down her throat and jerked open the robe regardless of the belt, her palm catching loosely against the back of his head as he sank his lips lower and drew his fingers from her, "Just to be sure."

Maybe neither of them had lost.

Maybe this was a stand-up stalemate.

At least until he hit is knees and skidded her underwear down. "Sure of what, love?"

"Of you. That this is real."

"Sweetheart," he wiped his mouth against the scar that circled on pale skin, "I'm the only thing you can afford to be sure of right now."


	36. Chapter 36

He blinked a sleepy glance over the way she was curled up on the couch that had been shoved back into the wall, her denim clad legs drawn up as she leaned into the tattered arm. Tig smirked into the quieted solitude of her, leaning forward slightly as Rat caught up into his back in confusion, the both of them tipping their glances over her stillness in the early morning.

"Mornin', AJ."

"Seems it." She sharpened off without lifting her head from the book she was reading, a white mug with SAMCRO emblazoned in black across the front looking infinitely odd in her long curling fingers.

"Cold shoulder." He banked an arched glance into the way Rat was watching the interaction between them with a perked glance. "Got it."

"Not intentionally." An apologetic roving claimed her voice as she shook her head, jaw lifting into the way she watched him curve both his palms against his own coffee cup, catching up the way he'd almost kept walking with the other man at his heels. "Sorry."

Tig gave her a cocked glance, inhaling into the way she was biting against the inside of her lip, obviously awkward and uncomfortable as she glinted a look back and forth between them. "Naw, it's cool. Just didn't realize the dick shaking contest was starting this early. Pretty sure you just beat this one."

Her smile went wide into the cuff Rat gave him in response for the taunting, her head angling into silent appreciation as she watched them both slowly angle closer rather than away in the half re-made clubhouse.

"Gaige is leaving gifts in my car while I'm working." She thumbed her place in the book, letting it lay against her updrawn leg as she sipped against coffee and nodded in the direction of the garage, "He's on a war path this morning. Very little sleep and a whole lotta rage. Just a warning."

"Shit." The swaying of concern leaned the man's steps forward, his foot kicking one of the short step stools up between them so he could stretch his legs to the sides, sitting easily as he leaned into her, "This can't screw us, AJ. It can't get in the way with the Irish. We're too close to a clean break."

"I get that." She nodded as she took another swallow of coffee, carefully lifting the cup between them as he kept his own curled up and Rat banked another cautious step sidelong to them. "I'm not arguing, Tig."

"Gaige needs to stay in place. Chibs can work this." Tig murmured into her. "You hear me?"

"Yeah, I get it. I don't like it. But I get it." She let the mug settle along her lifted knee, head tipping a slow angle to study how tired he looked in his pale face, realizing that his age was more visible when it was shaded by agitation, "He told you about Caffee?"

"Yeah." A smile suddenly cocked his lips wryly and blued his eyes beyond phenomenal, "Also told me you're not telling him everything about your, uh, break up."

Ally let her shoulders lax, lifting a glance into the way Rat was watching the conversation interestedly before she shunted the book aside, not caring about her lost place on a shrugging that caught Trager's glance, "He's a professional sell out, Tig. He gets himself tight up in a crew, lulls them for years if he has to. Sets himself up as high as he can get and then flips for cash. Sells them out and uses the law to get himself clear and flush. He's been doing it for as long as I've known him."

"And the law doesn't pin him on it because he becomes an asset." The older man nodded into the way he trapped his look between her and Rat and back again, "They cover his tracks for him so they can use him again."

"Over and over again." She dipped into agreement.

He was lazily sipping at his coffee as he considered the curled up draw of her on the ragged couch, her hair tangled up and tied off on top of her head in a way that made her so oddly casually approachable as a woman, "That how it played out? You figure it out with that pretty little head of yours?"

"Pretty much." Ally murmured as she matched his tinted and knowing smile.

"You tellin' us you were on the other side of that badge once, Lieutenant?" Rat's voice suddenly cut low between them with a rashing of amusement, "Bullshit. Not sure I can see that."

"Oh, I dunno. I can see that." Tig's smile was broadening hers as he held her glance, catching the slight tip of her jaw as she blinked her lashes lower into a humored but silent agreement, something complicit and warm between them that had Rat hushed, "A young and wild and angry, Ally Jarry? But it doesn't hook up, right? So you, you think too much, Ally. Got ya in the cross hairs, huh?"

"He knew I was a liability. He knew I'd figured it out." She shrugged into lifting the mug again, finishing off the last of it with a thick swallow.

"Rat, go help Chibs." He nodded the other man toward the door, ignoring the sharply offended and hurt look of distrust the younger man shaded briefly between them before swallowing it and stepping backwards, "Take him some coffee or somethin', huh? Slow his roll."

"Got it." Rat waved off as he headed toward the battered bar, leaning over it for a cup to fill.

"You're in your business because you know this business, right?" Tig took another swallow of coffee and let his lungs rattle an exhalation as his glance dropped to the worn in but definitely feminine cowboy boots she'd dumped carelessly along the front of the couch. "How bad was it? That it suddenly made you need to be clean?"

"We both know I'm not clean." She moved to lean the cup to the floor and perked a surprised smile into the way he took it from her, palming it in one hand while he held his in the other, "Don't make it sound like I'm being a hypocrite, Tig. I'm trying to - "

"How bad was it, AJ?" He pressed a concerned quietness between them, his eyes prettier than she'd expected.

Ally kept the glance he was giving her, forcing herself to hold the sympathetic warmth of him, "Everything changed."

"Sounds like you're putting two men you want dead into a cage match and letting my brother referee." Tig cautioned into a suddenly pitched quiet murmur, "Sounds like you're thinking too much again. And I don't like where it puts him. "

"He'd murder Caffee if he knew everything, Tig." She admitted into an honest hushing exhalation, shaking her head paled into the way she'd curled her body smaller into the corner of the couch, "But he keeps asking and looking at me like…"

He winced into biting on his lip and scraping his teeth into it, "Like what?"

"Like he already knows it broke me." Her eyes had brightened up in the sallow temporary lighting of the work space.

"Okay." He just nodded once into an acceptance of her non-explanation, seeming so oddly peaceful in comparison to how sharp and brash she knew he could be.

"He can't be the one. I want his hands clean. Caffee will get you information, keep you ahead of Gaige. You can use him. And if that kills him, so be it." She watched him stand, glance following the shift of his slim body as he stepped into the bar and filled the cup she'd been using back to full, his head leaned into listening as he turned back toward her, "At least it's not Filip. At least he's not the one getting his hands dirty or ratting out his club. It keeps him clear and loyal."

Tig offered the cup down into her waiting hands, "Solves the little domestic issue you two have goin' pretty nicely too."

"I won't disagree with that." A small smile curled at her lips as she lifted him a slightly guilted glance.

"You realize you never left the business, AJ?" He was already clearing away from her, knocking the step stool back a little and out of her way with a boot, "You just put a prettier face on it."

"You're wrong." She broke tightly between them, letting her glance bank into vacant space even as her voice went clear and strong, "I left it to make sure stupid and angry young girls don't get mutilated in front of their fathers while I'm around. Tell me again how old Kerrianne is?"

The stilled thunk of his boots against the floor braced the sudden silence in the room and she shook her head, wincing into the realization that she'd probably stepped a little too far. "Tig?"

"What'd you just say?" the sheered sharpness of his profile had grayed off pale and she watched his jaw go loosely slack, lips parted.

"I was just… are you okay?" her fingers tented tightly around the hot mug, head angling a sudden concern into the swayed way he shook his head in silent response.

"Stop thinking, AJ." He hushed off before swallowing a large breath. "Just stop."

* * *

><p>"Look at me."<p>

Chibs lifted his head into wiping the back of his hand along his forehead, dragging off sweat and wiping it into his work shirt as he blinked into the blank way Trager was staring at him, "I'm lookin'. Y'look like shit."

Tig let off a dump of breath, his head shaking back and forth just once, "Did you tell her?"

The already haggard way the older man was staring at him shot his jaw up into a tracked caution, jaw angling as his glance thinned. "Tell 'er what?"

"Chibs."

"Tiggy… what?" Chibs shook his head between them, stepping into the way Trager's palm reached into grasping against the side of the open hood of an SUV, his lean frame tipping into the front grill, "What's wrong, brother?"

"Dawn." Tig murmured dankly.

"No… I didn't." He lifted a hand into the darker man's leather, fingers gripping into it to lean them closer, "You look at me now. I didn't. Hear me?"

The nodding that came off of Trager seemed momentarily despondent and so he kept them clutched up together, kept their leaning balanced toward each other, "She said... shit, man. That woman's too goddamn smart."

"What'd she say to you?" He demanded on a rigidly hushed tightness.

"I don't think she even realized." Tig finally slacked them apart with a lift of his forearm and a shirking of his shoulder, swinging his hips around to lean into the front of the car with both palms braced back. "Nothin'. It's nothin'."

Chibs squinted over him, keeping close into his side, "You want me to get her outta here?"

"Naw, it's fine." Trager brushed off with a slow shake of the head, wiping and tugging into his wild hair ask he glanced down the other man's clenched up hand. "What the hell are you using?"

"White silk." Chibs supplied softly as he lifted a scrapped up strip of previously white fabric, now sooted and swiped with oil and grease and road grit.

"Used to be." His Vice President snorted between them.

The Scot lifted it higher between them, studying how mottled and mussed the previously immaculate color had become, "Used to be a very expensive dress that was left in the Lieutenant's car last night as a message meant for me."

"He's just testing you, Chibs. Let it slide. Keep it evened." Tig pressed slowly off the front of the car, leaning forward to tug at one of the stools so that he could angle himself onto it tiredly.

"It's even." The other man shrugged into a supposed calmness.

Tig nodded, pursing his lips up in a near smile as he watched Chibs glance over the fabric again, "That's why she's here?"

"I can get her out if - "

"No, it's a good idea." He lifted his palms off his thighs, flat and open as he shook his head, "Seriously. It's okay."

"Okay." Telford nodded out an intentionally evened breath.

"Chibby?"

The younger of the two gave him a shaded smirk into the nickname, "Aye?"

"Let's get drunk tonight. Right here. Boys and booze and broads. Fire shit up. Have Chucky stir up some chili and call everybody in for a wind down. We need it, huh? Her too. Know for a fact it's not easy dealin' with your maudlin."

"Sure." Chibs nodded slowly into the way the older man's voice had bottomed into a sort of emotionally exhausted pleading, smiling affectionate acceptance as he playfully passed a mocking kiss between them, "It's a date, sweetheart."

Tig slowly reached out, tugging against the cloth that was fisted up in the Scot's hand, "Shoulda given it to one of the girls."

"It was exactly her size." He tossed the dirtied silk into the engine block on a shrug, the words spitting off him distastefully, "Wasn't givin' it to anyone."


	37. Chapter 37

"Missing something, Prez?" there was a little too much unguarded humor in Quinn's brightened up glancing, a half emptied beer bottle looking dwarfish in his palm.

Chibs pursed his lips into a half turn in the midst of re-modeling, hands lifted wearily in a sort of gutted surrender as he stepped into the way the larger man was leaned to the bar, "Couldna gone far. Car's still in the lot. I need her keys."

"Belt?" Quinn asked as he stretched over the bar and blindly palmed to the shelving underneath, dragging out the small leather bag and dumping it atop of the bar.

The Scot perked a surprised and bemused glance over the other man before dragging into the bag with a turned head, nodding and blindly shifting his fingers in search of her keys while watching the door. Quinn chuckled over the quick shifting of the older man's reaching, shaking his head into amusement that caught up warm between them.

Rane smirked into the way the older man victoriously clutched the keys up and leaned over the bar, dumping the purse back into place, "She's not in the building. You're safe."

"Can't keep to her damn self." Chibs murmured as he jangled them a little, an obvious impatience cutting his hips at a slackened angle, "Where is she?"

Quinn just smirked as his head tipped into a slow shrug of his shoulders, "I feel like a small child would feel when asked whether they'd rather live with their mommy or their daddy."

"Daddy doesn't leave you on purse patrol." Chibs gave him an arched brow and a sliding grin.

"Unser's trailer." Quinn lifted the bottle in a nodding agreement and a mocking salute.

"Thank you." Chibs caught the keys up tightly in his hand as he moved back toward the door, lifting the fisted palm on his way out to toss the keys back toward the other man jauntily. "Get it up on the jack. Needs an oil change. You can drink later. We're burnin' tonight."

Quinn's shoulders dropped as he shunted the bottle back to the bar, "I wanna live with mom."

* * *

><p>"Couldn't help yourself, could ya, Lieutenant?"<p>

She'd known he was there by the leaning slant of shade he'd drawn into the sun drenched doorway, a squinting furrowing her brow as she still kept sifting through the photos she'd found raggedly strewn through a box in one of the messy cupboards. Ally lifted one of them even as his words echoed into a nulled silence, his leaning sturdy in the open doorway of the trailer.

"Look at you, Scotty." She smirked into lifting the photo between two fingers, waving it between them and through the smoke that was curling up from the ashtray perched on the couch beside her. "This is not a Harley."

He squinted as he lifted his jaw, drinking in the smell of burning weed as a full smile graced preciously over his lips at the photo, "Naw, that's a - "

"Indian Big Base." She interrupted as she tipped the picture higher, the other hand lifting the joint between her fingers on a bright eyed shrug. "Seven fifty."

"Nineteen forty eight. Bike show in Portland." He supplied softly, pleasured surprise brushing his smile wider as he wiped against his jaw. "That was sexy, Lieutenant. Look at me when you talk dirty."

Ally half blinked into a tease of a smile, angling her head before she licked against her lips and dropped the picture back into the box, her shoulders stretching back slowly as her empty fingers wiped at the back of her neck. Chibs let his smile well a little warmer as he pushed off the doorframe, leaving the metal door hung wide open. He leaned forward into sitting beside her in the cramped space, drawing the ashtray up against his knee as he turned sidelong on the cushion, balancing it there so he could brace into the back of the small couch.

"My daddy had two kids and a sixty three Triumph, Telford." The simple curl of her legs up under her and the way she'd knotted her hair up made her seem softly feminine to him as she dragged down smoke then loosed it to the side. "One outta three got a good night kiss. Wanna place a bet?"

"Thunderbird?" He couldn't stop smiling over the comfortable curl of her long and trim body, letting his hand drop off the back cushions to brace along the back of her neck, one finger twirling into loose strands of dark.

"You're goddamn right it was." She nodded once and lifted the joint to his lips as she studied the simple lay of completely unguarded adoration that was making his eyes seem softly velvetly warmed up, "I blew her up. Wrecked on the Algodones. He actually cried."

He quickly took the joint from her fingers, blowing smoke aside as his eyes slimmed and darkened on a sideways glaring. Ally bit into her bottom lip at the sudden widened accusation he was turning over her, his shoulders suddenly slacked farther back in a surprised sadness as he shook his head back and forth.

"Y'took a beautiful bike like that to the dunes and wrecked her?" He stubbed out the weed as a sort of quiet punishment, glaring into her scandalized noise of annoyance as his jaw jutted up. "You're never touching my baby again."

"I mean… he really cried." She taunted playfully into her leaning as he shifted forward to set the ashtray aside, a groan catching up his throat as she met her lips along the stretch of his bared neck. The lack of leather made her dragging and pressing easier, the warmed and worn fabric of his work shirt a hell of a lot more pliant under pulling and persistent fingers.

"He let y'take a sixty three to the dunes?" his palm had lifted blindly back into the spread of her throat, turning his head angling so that her lips kept their run toward his ear.

Ally smirked easily into the subtle shifting he made closer to her, his hand still lifted to the opposite side of her head to idly rub her jaw as she nipped his earlobe, "I lived in Yuma. We were there before he knew it was gone."

"We?" His head suddenly jerked from the warm tripping of her lips, glance turning toward her eyes with an arched brow and pursed lips.

The silent but moderately shameless shrugging smirk she gave him said more than enough.

"Sure, that's what I thought." He nodded as he intentionally blocked space between them and sank farther back into the couch, forcing her still and away from him with a hand pressed to her throat. "You blew it up or your idiot of a boyfriend - "

"You can't know that he was an idiot." She minced into a playful glaring. "Don't be jealous."

The Scot banked her a grazing glance of knowing, "Triumph on the Algodones? And he was showin' off for ya, yeah?"

"Maybe." Ally lifted the shoulder nearest him in a mischievous shrug, "Sounds like a sad movie, doesn't it?"

"Sounds like an idiot." He countered tartly, his jaw flicking before he lifted a smile that matched the humor still crackling color in her eyes, "Maybe I should get in touch with your da, huh? Hear his side of this sad tale."

"Maybe you shouldn't, huh?" She stretched over the box of photos in her lap, fingers catching into his shirt again so that she could draw him back toward her. "He's dead."

Her mouth caught up his in a demanding kissing before he could answer, the revelation dropped aside as though she'd already told him once or twice before. Brushed quietly between them before she tried to distract and detract from anything substantially emotional by laying her tongue so longingly against his that he accepted the distraction because of how natural the moment felt between them when nothing should have felt so innocently and evenly and romantically complicit.

The perfection of her softness in seeming so casually female.

The easiness of just being two people.

No badge, no leather, no weaponry or defensive posturing.

Just his hand softly flat to the warmth of her face in a dead man's trailer.

He wanted more of that kiss and realized that even though she'd started it, he was the one leaning forward against ending it as her lips dragged from his.

A sweetened smile curved his lips as he glanced over her face, "I've learned more about you in ten minutes than I have in - "

"Is this Lyla?" she was already fingering another photo, lifting it into the awkwardly shunting interruption as her eyes dropped from his in a manner so nervous that he couldn't help shading an accepting glance into her sudden self aware nervousness.

"Ope's wedding." Chibs smiled even wider into her conscious agitation, forcing himself to settle relaxed again, his hand broaching the back of her neck softly to rub against taut muscles as he nodded over the photo, "It is."

"That girl has no right being so damn beautiful." Her voice had softened and gone gentled as she'd leaned closer, tapping a fingernail against the photo with a lifted glance of questioning, "Tell me?"

He glanced over the group shot, just a random wedding photo that he obviously hadn't been in on, head cocked as his smile loosened off and his jaw went lax, "Kozik. Patched in from Tacoma."

"From the look on your face I don't believe he went back to Tacoma." The concerned tightness of her tone was curbed by how softened she'd let the words lay between them as she studied the sharpened up downturn of his profile.

"Did though. In a way." He murmured as he continued studying the photo she was holding, letting his arm shift up to cage his hand against the back of her head, "Clay and Gem. Phil and Juice. Bobby. Jackie and Tara - "

"Filip, most of these people are dead." Her voice didn't need to be all that loud because she was leaning long into him, dropping her face so that her chin was riding along his shoulder.

"I know that, Ally." His fingers dropped the picture back into the box as he blinked and shook his head back and forth sharply, frowning his glance blankly forward, "Not like I can forget it."

"Just you and Tig."

"Happy." He corrected quickly with a jerked shake of his head, glance still blankly forward as he blinked, "Lyla and Chucky. Nero and Venus, even. The kids and the other boys."

"Not the same. Why the two of you? How'd that happen?" her palm braced up flat against his chest and he could feel the bright of her eyes on his face even as he bit along his lip and scraped his teeth against it.

He finally turned her a completely emptied shrugging, "Blind fuckin' luck, darlin'."

Ally shook her head slowly into certain disagreement, "I don't believe in luck, Filip."

"Dumb fate?"

"I don't believe in that either." She told him gently, pressing her palm harder into the rise and fall of his lagged breathing.

Chibs pinched her a questioning glance, liking the conversational quietness that had fallen so gently around and between them, almost much or maybe more than he liked it when she was whipping up a fury, "Whatcha believe in, Lieutenant?"

"Paying attention." She lifted that same cocked shoulder as she glanced down over the disheveled box, "And always having a back up plan."

"What's your back up plan?" His other hand caught her jaw faster than she'd seen coming and she hated that his movements always flexed so quickly and that she was always so lulled in her reaction to his shifting, only his, "For me? For this?"

"Patterson." A blink of honesty brightened the apologetic twitch in her response, "She can execute an exit strategy inside of forty minutes."

His face shaded darkly into less than anger and maybe more than a panged hurt, "Just gonna disappear some morning, Althea? Huh? Leave the coffee pot on for me and a towel in the bathroom? Go back to Yuma? Shitty music in an empty kitchen?"

"Wouldn't go back to Yuma." She shied her jaw down off his fingers with a forced pull and a clipped tone, ignoring the implication and the dryness of his demanding, "We were only there for a year and a half."

"And where would y'go then?" There was a surprising and unexpected tenderness riding the bend of his knuckles against the side of her face.

"I don't know now." She was fidgeting her fingers through the photos to intentionally avoid his questioning and Chibs let a sigh rag off his lips as he dropped his palm over both of her hands.

He dipped her a forcing glance, "Because why?"

"Because you, jackass." Her fingers flexed out under his even as she refused to meet his eyes and the way she caught against the hold of his hand reminded him of the first lay of his hand to hers.

"Yeah?" He grinned boyishly into leaning his head closer to hers. "Really?"

"Yeah." The supposedly casual shrug she made matched the way she tugged her hands free from his, slapping his fingers away as she lifted a photo of Tig full on laughing toward the camera, his face so much brighter than it had lately seemed.

"Need you to do somethin' for me." Chibs murmured as he took the picture up from her fingers, letting his thumb edge on it, "Couple somethings."

Ally turned him a newly made smile, "Maybe."

"Lyla needs a little help. I got some cash in the office. Double down the grocery run?"

She nodded slowly into acceptance as she kept rifling through pictures, lifting another of him with a slow hand, tipping a saddened glance over the way he was strung around Munson in the image, handing it over along with the picture of Tig. "What else?"

It was a breathless and beaten moment as he took the photo, pocketing both the ones he was holding into his work shirt as he shrugged, "We gotta take Chucky with us."

"We're taking Fancy Fingers for a road trip?" Ally arched him a wary glance, "Why?"

His eyes were softened up between whimsical amusement and sympathy, "Hey, he's not handling all this that well. Be sweet. He's makin' chili for thirty or forty people."

"And why?" her shoulders had lifted into the rigged up tone of voice.

"Because we're playin' outlaw tonight, my love." He grinned before gently untangling from her leaning with a guarding hand that tweaked against her hair as he stood, "Badge stays home."

"I'm invited, huh?" Ally watched him lift against his belt, noting the appetizing rise of his hips before he turned over her.

"Time y'took your place, Althea." The bend of his lips against her forehead was intentionally cradling the heady force in his tone, "Need to earn it, though."

"They don't like me, Scotty." She'd lifted her head into his kissing and kept her jaw up into the way he stood straightened again.

"They don't know you." Chibs breathed off as he lifted a hand and aimed accusatory fingers in her direction, "Give 'em a chance. Be my Ally."

"I don't know what you mean by your Ally." She shunted off as she dropped her shoulders back, her head shaking back and forth in a sort of loss, "I don't know what you mean by my place."

"But y'do, Althea." He sighed off, wiping at her hair again because he couldn't stand not to when she was looking at him with such a wealth of openness.

"Hence buying Lyla's groceries with petty cash and helping the obsessive compulsive with a vat of chili?"

A snort of clear but sad amusement came off him as he turned toward the door completely, bending half out of it, "We don't have any petty cash left."

"You're sweet as hell sometimes, Telford." She cast after him with a broad smile.

He clipped his hand along the door frame and patted against it before he flicked her back a smirk, "Don't ever go to Algodones again without me, mo ghràidh."


	38. Chapter 38

_Author's Note: It must be said, so many MANY thanks to all my wonderful reviewers/cheerleaders! You guys have been wonderful! Especially K & Eva & Kara!_

* * *

><p>"You guys really didn't need to do this." He watched the distracted movements she made as she sorted things out of bags, her face paler and more tired seeming than usual, "I can afford groceries, Chibs."<p>

"It's more the time, sweetheart." He waved off as the sound of the television blared up from the other room, the kids breaking even louder than the noise, "I know you're tied up."

Lyla rolled him an obviously wearied but sweetly bemused glance, banking it toward the way Ally was leaned slightly away from the table with her fingers riding the back of the chair he was in. The older woman's entire body was framed up tightly, the bones of her seemingly locked into a trained and engrained position of unconscious self defense. She shook her head slowly and sighed off as she just leaned forward and started tugging groceries out from bags again, Chucky's voice ringing just as clearly as the kids' from the other room. The three of them tipping into a shared breathy laughter at his amused tone as it rang through the cluttered house.

"Just takin' care of ya." Chibs murmured into the way he reached back, fingers hooking against Ally's and tugging at her lightly to draw her around.

"Oh," the blonde stepped away suddenly and tagged her bag up, rifling through it as she panned a smile between the two of them, her eyes softening toward a warm blue as she tugged a folder out and tossed it onto the table, "for you."

"Tell me it's better and not worse." He lifted up his jaw pleadingly, ignoring the stiffening in the older woman's length as he tugged down against her belt, intentionally drawing her into his lap.

"It's better." Lyla nodded quickly before laying her palms to the table, her shoulders finally sinking into a heaved exhalation, her glance turning between the two of them as her spine flexed into relaxation, "Thank you."

"I wasn't sure of brands or anything." Ally offered softly, letting her upper body finally loosen lax back into him as he flicked the papers out over top of plastic bags, pulling his glasses from his pocket while the other hand grazed her stomach through fabric.

The blonde was already putting away a couple boxes of cereal, her movements quick and sure as she re-organized at the same time, "My kids are not fussy. If they can soak it in milk, they can swallow it."

"This is much better." Chibs murmured up between them in a quieter tone as he glanced over the paperwork.

"Marginally better." Lyla corrected with a shrug, already shaking the bottle of orange juice she'd pulled from a bag.

"Profit analysis?" Ally angled a glancing over the papers,

"Diosa Norte." The other woman tapped one paper before aiming for the next, "Red Woody."

"Damn." The brunette lifted the nearest one away from his reading and he slacked back in the chair in a feigned perturbation, casting Lyla a searching glance and just finding humor on her face. "I'm in the wrong business, Scotty."

"I agree. However, I would prefer you didn't join this one." He nodded in humor as he stretched farther back in the chair, letting his palm stretch flat to her spine as he turned back toward the blonde, "Gaige?"

Lyla shrugged slowly as she cracked open the bottle of juice and stepped toward the counter, drawing a glass from the strainer, "He's been in an out a lot. Polite, though. Respectful."

"Anybody with him?" Ally's question lifted between them even though her glance hadn't risen from either of the papers she was looking over.

The surprised and smirking glance Lyla passed him made him shake his head slowly before he leaned forward, avoiding the knowing blue of her teasingly arched glance so that he could press tighter into the other woman's back.

"Not yet." The younger woman murmured, her voice lowering as she poured a glass. "Had a pretty heated phone call but not much other contact that I've seen."

"Keep to Quinn." Chibs murmured softly up the rise of Ally's spine.

"I thought Quinn was my Prince Charming." The brunette shot out over the table with a teasing tone as she dropped the papers. "You two timing him on me?"

"He's got a big heart for Miss America." Chibs winked between the undeniably all female glances he was getting from the both of them. "I like watchin' him twist."

"Big heart, huh?" Ally nodded slowly with a sliding smile toward the younger woman, Lyla's eyes rolling slightly into a flushed smirk as she turned to put the juice in the fridge, "Yeah, I'm sure that's it."

* * *

><p>"Tig said you wanted me."<p>

He heard the younger man's voice, registered the words and all… but ignored them at first just the same. He lifted the bottle that had gone a little too long while he watched her, swallowing off the piss warm beer with a glance that slowly grazed off her to catch Montez's watching before turning back to watch the way she laughed into Venus's hands tugging her hair down along her cheeks playfully.

"Want you a Lyla's tomorrow, yeah? You and Rat." He offered quietly as he set the bottle back against the bar, leaving it off so that he could ride his elbows back against the edge and turn his glance back toward the open kitchenette, wishing he could hear them from such a distance.

"Okay." Montez stretched up onto the stool beside him, hooking boots against the stool rung as his hands pressed into updrawn knees. "For?"

"Tig said you could install a dishwasher?"

"Sure." The younger man's head tipped at an angle. "You all there, Chibs?"

"I'm all here." Chibs murmured slowly with a swing of his jaw, a smile twitching over his lips. "Where you at with her bein' around, Allessandro?"

A suddenly confused glance flickered over the Scot and toward the small kitchen area and back, "None of my business."

"Bullshit." Chibs shunted up as he dragged a long glance back toward the way she was chatting with Venus and Lyla and looking more comfortable in the movements than he'd expected of her.

"Don't worry about her." The shorter man dumped quietly between them. "Worry about you. And what having her around means for you."

"What exactly does it mean for me, Montez?" Chibs angled him an intentionally blanked glance, keeping his face forcefully passive.

"She's a weakness and a threat at the same time." Montez gave him a quick shrugging as his embarrassedly amused glance dropped to the floor, "But I'm pretty sure most women are, Prez."

"We need this club clean, brother." The Scot sighed off, slicking the taste of warm beer off his lips as he shook his head into a surge of sadness. "I'm tired."

"Sure, but she's not gonna do it." Montez shrugged as he leaned off the stool, smiling into the softness of his voice as he back-stepped toward the small group of people mingling near the door, "You are."

* * *

><p>She nearly laughed into the way Venus' heel clicked a half stamp into the freshly laid tile of the small kitchenette, "Stop being so intentionally emotionally distant and at least pretend that you're the gorgeous and sweet woman I know you can be, Althea."<p>

"Are you even speaking English?" she caged between the two of them, catching the snort of amusement Lyla let off as she jerked a cork from a chilled wine bottle and let the opener clatter to the counter.

"Come taste this, angel." Venus responded with a quick demanding that bent off into an almost pleading, a spoonful of chili lifted from over the large pot with a little wave to it, "We're not feeding it to the horde if it tastes like premium dog food."

The younger woman leaned between them, pouring wine into a glass so that she could turn it up toward Ally, her voice banking far dryer and more lulled, "Drink the wine instead."

"Thank you." Ally took the glass with a quick nod before glancing back over Venus' perfect posture and lifted fingers, "You tell me to stop being distant and then demand I taste test something you compare to high priced dog food?"

"I didn't say that it was. I want to be sure."

Lyla was smirking as she drew her hips up onto the counter, the jeans she was wearing riding intentionally low on her curves, "I'd just drink the wine."

"Make one of the boys try it." Ally waved her free fingers toward the rest of the unfinished clubhouse.

"Those boys eat poorly. They have absolutely no taste except in these women." Venus was already stalking on her with a lifted spoon and a jaw raised into amused determination as her other hand motioned between them, "Now get your flat ass over here and part those sweet lips."

"I do not have a flat ass." She snapped back into lifting her glass between them sharply.

"I'm gonna call you Pancake for fun." A playful wink went between them and suddenly the spoon was before her lips and she resigned herself into taking it into her mouth with a perturbed glance toward where Lyla was watching with humor, "A little personal entertainment just for me. Good girl."

The blonde took a long swallow directly off the bottle and shook her head slowly, "I would not have eaten that."

"It's not bad." She let her tongue slick against her bottom lip as she banked a lazed glance between them, her features flat and unimpressed, "It's just chili."

Venus gave her a lagged pouting, her face trapping down in disappointment, "I was hoping for truly phenomenal."

Ally shrugged apologetically as Venus dropped the spoon into the sink and she lifted the glass between them with a sympathetic nodding, "Then you'd better drink the wine."

* * *

><p>"You hiding?" his voice rang up her spine even though it was laid like a penitence between them.<p>

"I'm not." She shook her head quickly, rounding on the heeled boot so that she could face him as she turned away from the photos that lined the hall wall. "I'm interested. I'm curious. I'm learning."

Chibs perked an amused glance over her flushed cheeks, nodding a sort of acceptance as he leaned his shoulder up the wall and let his other hand curl up at his side, "You're wine warm, Lieutenant."

The gilded affection and humor that rose in her eyes was flared up brighter by the way she dropped an intentionally longing glance up and down the leaned length of him, "I am more than warm, Scotty."

"Ah. Don't start in yet." He caught sharply against the way she'd leaned into him, her palm slanting to curl his upper arm as she'd pressed up his side, "Hands t'yourself, love."

Ally's eyes lifted even brighter as she caught the searchingly cautious look he was dropping sideways down the front of her, his teeth ribbing his bottom lip, "Am I making you nervous, Telford?"

"You're making me paranoid." His arm tightened under the deliciously warm way her fingers were massaging a heat into the tensed muscle of his arm, "You're stalkin'. Stop it."

"Sometimes I find you unavoidable, Filip." She breathed out the admission with such a threaded heat that he felt the flush stroke his throat and under the collar of his shirt as he turned her a forcefully blanked glance.

"Don't know what you mean by that." He bantered back her earlier qualms, blinking into the way the words made her head tip slowly, his eyes following the slope of her hair.

"Unavoidable. As in, I cannot avoid you." The smile in her eyes as she spoke was what was completely unavoidable, she just didn't realize it. "You are impossible to avoid. Impassible. Not something to be ignored."

"I speak the language too, Althea." He rolled over her quietly.

"Barely."

Chibs tisked her a feigned glance of hurt. "Unkind."

"Unavoidable." She corrected as her fingers tweaked along his shirt, "I like touching you."

"Ah." His brow arched into a quieted warning but he didn't move to stop her, didn't necessarily want to, "Mind yourself."

Ally made a hushing noise of disapproval, shaking her head tightly against his contradiction, "You like me touching you."

"I do find it enjoyable." He admitted quietly into letting his head leaned sideways into her lifted jaw, swallowing hard as she wiped down his chest with long and dragging fingers.

"Mmm." The sound raked so softly off her throat, her lips too damn near his ear and her breath warm against skin as her palm sloped farther, "So you do speak my language."

"Althea." A groan strickened up his throat as he blinked his eyes shut against the sure and driven pressing of her fingers against the almost erection she was pulling from him, "What're you doin'?"

"Enjoying myself." Her hand stroked precisely back up the front of him, the movements slow and light before she patted his chest gently with a sure nodding. "And getting more wine."

"Ally." He growled a rough annoyance after the confident stretching of her as she walked away from his leaning.

"Taking my place?" She asked behind her on a taunting, leading a grin across his lips as he slacked back against the wall and watched her from the length of her hair to her hips to her ass.

"Told you it had t'be earned." He cast after her as he shifted his hips uncomfortably.

The lift of a flat palm to reject his correction as she continued walking just made his smile delve deeper into dimples.

* * *

><p>"Your turn, Prez."<p>

She'd done exactly as he'd asked of her and done it decidedly well.

She was more than just his Ally - she was hip cocked and all sass and smiling and maybe a little flushed with the drink he kept tipping to her full lips.

"C'mon, Scotty." her jaw lifted into a tease as her shoulders leaned into pointing at him playfully with her empty hand, Tig's laughter broad and easy between them as he moved by. "Show me what you've got."

And he was fantastically unaware as to how they'd ended up here, prizing up a fight for pride in a very public parking lot that was scattered with a fair number of familiar faces and riotous sounds of music, bikes and people. But he was fairly sure that it was because he'd laughed brightly and loudly when she'd implied she was a better shot than one of his boys – her jaw lifting so assuredly in a glaring at him that he knew he'd pay for it. And she'd very easily made a play to prove it – and Tig had not been at all helpful in making the game a reality. It had led to three rounds of point shooting in the parking lot, loosening rounds toward a makeshift target and his darling girl showing off and showing up TO's marksmanship in less than ten minutes.

"You shy?" the taunting shake of her head had her hair riding her shoulders in a way that made him sway forward on a knowing glaring of disagreement. "Or concerned, Telford?"

"Not afraid I'll embarrass ya, Lieutenant?" he'd stretched a reaching hand into taking the Glock from her, side palming the pistol as he lifted his jaw away from her warm leaning to deny catching too close into the heated vanilla smell of her, catching the cocked glance TO gave him as he lifted apologetic hands.

"Ah." Ally's voice caught up to him on a half turn, her arms tucked up under her breasts as she cocked her head once in a sharp demanding, "Wager first."

"A wager?" he grinned broadly into the taunting chatter a couple of the guys let off, hushing them with a wave as he stepped back into her and intentionally laid himself up into her space to force her glance upward. "Whatcha got in mind, Althea?"

"What do you want?" there was a sudden rushed hush to her that dipped toward honest questioning and he blinked before arching a glance over her searching, catching the sharpened up whistle Tig let off from behind him.

Chibs lifted the empty hand into a warning flat palm, not taking his eyes off the bright caramel shine of hers as he tipped his head. "Y'sure you're up to this game? You've no idea what you're messin' in."

"Talking smack is just making your inevitable loss more embarrassing for you." She smirked just before her teeth nicked against her bottom lip. "There has to be something, Scotty."

"I never get shit about the term 'old lady' bein' used in reference t'you." He breathed out quietly along her jaw. "Not ever."

Her face slackened suddenly in annoyance, lips pursed as she searched over his face and swallowed just before lifting her shoulders in sudden unswayed acceptance. "Fine. If you win."

"And if you win?"

She cocked a smile past him toward Tig's grinning and gave the other man a flirting glance, the other faces seeming familiar but not all that known before she panned Telford a look and lifted her fingers into catching his shirt, tugging him forward into a warmed leaning. There was an arched grin over his face that dug his dimples toward adorable as he tipped his head into hers as she lifted on the toes of her boots.

"You take Caffee to the table first thing in the morning." She hushed into his ear a beat before rubbing her lips against his cheek.

His head turned sharply, brow arched as he bit into the whisper she'd laid into him. "Not acceptable."

Her eyes thinned as her fingers caught up into the break of his shirt, nails scraping on skin as her jaw lifted, "Why not?"

"My table." He murmured back tightly.

"Then let Tig take your place." She was already pushing off him with a broad stroke of her flat hand into his chest and he used the free hand to catch along her wrist, tugging her sharply back into place.

"Club business is my business, Althea." He curled the whisper into the rise of her cheekbone, keeping the dispute quieted and murmured near silent.

"And you not getting dead is mine." She clapped back in a voice so curbed and controlled he realized she was nowhere near as buzzed as he'd thought maybe she was, her mouth suddenly so damn close to being under his control. "Afraid I'll win, President?"

The curling taunt of her tone broke open every flare of heat that existed between his lungs and his groin but the rise of pride that racked his shoulders straight also curled a devious smile over his lips. "Not really. Deal."

"Good." She let a light kiss ride the corner of his mouth, "Ladies first. Gimme my gun."

"I'll keep this one." He lagged behind her as he slaked his tongue against his teeth and watched the wildly delightful turn of her hips, "You can use the Beretta.


	39. Chapter 39

Thing was, she'd not told him he couldn't touch or tease or lean up the long limbed back of her from shoulders to ass and bury his face in the warm smell of her hair. And her spine arched into his hips pressing hers in a silent acceptance of him up the back of her, as though she'd known he would balance his stance as a mimicry of hers. His feet planted in damn near the same position as he pressed into her ass and intentionally splayed both palms onto the breaks of her pelvic bones to keep her laid up into the solid front of him.

"Cheating son of a bitch." Still, she drew up easily and he lifted his jaw on the same slow rise, smiling into the way he felt her shoulders slide comfortably into a position they seemed to know and own without consideration.

"Just breathe, my love." He teased the words up the crest of her ear and smiled wider into the fact that it didn't prove a single twitch on her.

He adored her when she was so steady.

He loved it just as much when she was swinging wild.

"Filip?" her head had moved just barely a fraction, voice gently carrying just enough for him to hear.

He made a questioning noise soft and low in his throat, stretching his fingers to span the front of her, skidding palms down toward her thighs as he angled his glance up past dark lashes toward the target she was sighting. Her lungs loosened slowly into her hand squeezing and he winced into a shot that was damn near to perfect on the center of the target. The sudden sharp sound of amused agreement someone let off behind him had him thinning his glance as he lifted his head, both annoyed and amused by the chattering sounds behind him.

"Do you love me?"

He winced tightly into the echoed words, her hands just as sure on a pistol as Gaige's had been when he'd asked the very same question. But she couldn't have known. And far as he was concerned, she never would. And her voice had been so flush with playfulness, a broad warmth and a wealth of surety that had never before seemed so very confident between them. He couldn't deny her when she was so painstakingly leaning long into the world he'd lifted with both hands and settled into her lap without much warning.

Who was he kidding? For fuck's sake… he couldn't deny her much anything anymore.

Even if it was just her grumpily tugging at him to get up and turn off the light at three in the morning.

He may have accused her of losing her edge, but he'd be remiss if he didn't admit that she'd dulled him cleanly and without a back glance remorse.

"Unavoidably." He buried his mouth behind her ear, kissing into the mess of dark hair and grinning into the fact that her direct and rapid response was two swift shots that echoed his quick and steady assertion like the thudding of a padlock, secured and spun.

"Good." Ally's shoulder lifted into the way she turned her head into the run of his teeth against her earlobe, a sort of muted murmuring of surprise coming up from the group behind him as he avoided looking at the target. "Because you just lost."

"I haven't even started yet." He murmured into dragging his mouth up her jaw.

"You could forfeit now." The rise of gilded eyes was all wild humor as she turned her head far enough to catch his glancing.

Chibs angled his head to the side, brow arched into a full flush of pride, "Get outta my way, darlin'."

* * *

><p>She didn't linger too close to him at first, instead letting her arms cross her chest loosely as she intentionally leaned into Trager's upper arm and slanted a glance down the back of the man who had no right being so undeniably large in her life. Tig gave her a sharply turned glance, his smile brashly wide and his face flushed up with a loosened comfort that seemed new to her, unfamiliar to his recently faded features.<p>

"He's a shit shot when the target isn't moving, AJ." Tig's voice was near giddied with quieted humor as he shook his head, "You just blew his ass outta the water."

"He may surprise us both." She shrugged a lazed complacency and gave him a smile that made her suddenly young with affectionate humor and pride, catching his glance and keeping his eyes following the languid slide of her as she stepped forward on heels.

He watched her longer than he figured Telford would probably be comfortable with but it was nothing of leering, his eyes following the unassuming lift of her slim palm into his brother's leather layered back, her fingers spread over the swath of the patch as she laid full into the other man's side. There was nothing bitter or battered about them in her leaning, her chin riding the other man's shoulder in a way that peaked them together as Telford's head turned into hers. Tig sharply choked down the way his lungs clenched up like acrid campfire smoke had suddenly clouded him in the face, the realization of their momentary innocence so perfectly unbelievable that he had to stall and still the moment for as long as he could. Her laughter as her head lifted into thinned eyes and a smile nearly too intimate for public consumption had Tig letting his shoulders drop loose into a sort of unexplainably proud comfort, his own lips curling into a grin as he wiped on his top lip.

"C'mon, Chibby." He cast up the back of both of them as he let his palms slap together to noisily catch attention. "Let's get this over with. Lady Law needs a dressing down."

* * *

><p>"It's not gonna work."<p>

It already had.

He was damned in a most delightful fashion.

In a way he didn't necessarily mind when she was still so near him though surely she shouldn't have been. Not in this place.

These days rebellion smelled like vanilla and tasted like imbalance.

"Don't know what you mean." She'd drawn most every inch of her body from the pressing she'd been leaning on him – except two fingers tucked into his belt loop as she'd lagged a step away from him, a single tethered hold that didn't seem like enough, but was more than necessary to keep them on parr.

"I mean," he tested the weight of the Glock, palming it up as she curled back toward him on a leaning that seemed drawn taut. "you tryin' to sink me."

"I will never really belong here, Scotty. Not like… I'm not the mother type." She murmured such a softened acceptance between them, sad but true and clear in acknowledgment, his hand dipping a little in breathless reaction before he recovered into lifting the Glock by another fraction. "I'm never gonna be their Gemma. But I do love you for trying."

"It's not gonna work." He repeated with a bracing tone, pocketing her use of the word that seemed generally so distasteful to her, focusing on the target.

Rather, trying a sort of focus that was wrecked up too easily by the treading softness of her voice.

Ally's head shook just marginally enough to break something in him, "No, gorgeous. It's not."

His jaw nearly cracked into its jarred flexing, "I mean - "

"I know what you mean, Filip." She leaned up a chaste kiss against his jaw to loosen its gritting, her breasts pressing up into his upper arm as she audibly drew in the scent of him through a deeply drawn inhalation. "Take your shot. Your boys are waiting."

"If I'd just wanted a Gemma," He turned his jaw angling toward hers though his eyes never left the target, "I never woulda laid you down in the first place, Althea. Now shut up."

Her hands had shifted on him, so perfectly placed to distract him.

One bracing his lower back, fingers up under the Reaper in a way that seemed to surpass everything around them in marking him as something she could lean a stolen possession onto. The other spanning down from his belt with long tracing fingers lining his zipper.

"Because I'm distracting you?" she asked, her whisper suddenly far too wickedly laid along his ear to be distressed, all tangled up in the way she tended to lace around him and force him to cut from her.

"You're a limitless distraction." He bit down against the walled heat of her beside him in a place she very well shouldn't have been. "I'm learnin' to live with it."

He thought maybe he'd had a possibility of salvation until he'd really let himself more than like her. She was supposed to be something safe and clean. He'd thought maybe she was his safest road to restoration.

She was never harmless when her voice wended so warmly dangerously quiet.

She was ever a downfall, and always the cause of some disastrously perfect wreckage.

And she laughed, and he didn't know why, but he blinked a groan into the sound of it resting on his ear, "Take your shot, Scotty."

"Take your hand off my dick." He countered, ignoring the fact that it had gotten awkwardly quiet behind them.

"It's nowhere near your dick." Her voice tripped a little brighter into being just amusedly contrary as she stroked her full palm down against denim and cupped against his undeniably hardening length, "That's near your dick."

"Althea." His lungs rattled on her name in a manner that made him suddenly all to aware of where they were and how many people were too damn near them in this.

"Don't say my name like an apology." Ally corrected sharply into his cheek, "Say it like it's yours."

The smile that tweaked on his lips wasn't something he'd meant to be public, "Is it?"

"I gave it to you a very long time ago." She wiped her kisses along his jaw like it was the only way she could stay so close in a place she didn't think she belonged, "Now take your shot."

He laid all three into the target without looking because her mouth had been too damn close to avoid taking with his own.

He'd somehow known he would lose before she'd even taken her turn.

* * *

><p>Quinn grinned into the tripped up way her fingers caught onto his offered arm, steering her away from the crowd of people and into the bar with a quirked smile, "Well, you're drunk."<p>

"And you're very sweet." Ally sighed off as she stretched onto one of the stools with a smirk, hooking her booted ankles around a rung as she leaned both elbows up, "And I am not drunk. I have to work in the morning."

"It is morning." He offered, raising his voice just about the music so that she could catch his softness as he turned around the bar and down it, his eyes trapped up on the way she let her jaw sink sighingly into both upturned palms. He let himself smile innocently into the girlish way she watched him, seeming so flushed up female as she leaned harder into the bar. The boots and jeans and curve curling tightness of her white shirt had done just as much to make her anything but a cop as her downed hair and smoked dark eyes had. She was momentarily more a woman than anything he'd seen her as before.

"I know." Her voice cradled quieter. "Stop coddling me, Quinn."

Another sigh rounded off her as she watched him pull another beer from the temporary tap they'd finagled just for the party.

"I'm tired." She laggingly admitted over the raucous slew of voices that rose suddenly from the corner and then died down just as fast.

The large man just shrugged as he ducked a little, glance distracted as he searched for something, "Tell him you wanna go home."

"Tell Lyla you can't stop looking at her." Ally countered with a quick smirking, letting the smile crown wider when his eyes lifted sharply into her implication.

His hand suddenly lifted an empty mug up from one of the lower shelves and set it with a loud thunk to the bar, "Tell him it's time to leave."

"Tell her you think she's perfect." She hadn't waited a beat to answer into his delfection, head cocked slightly as one of her palms dropped fast to the bar as he turned his formidably large back in her direction, "Stop ignoring me."

"I'm just getting you some coffee." His hand had already curled around the carafe handle, pulling it between them so that he could pour.

"You should just be getting some." Ally told him sharply, a sort of playful pouting leaned over the cup as she dipped closer and swallowed the bitter but welcomed steam, "I should be getting some."

The face Quinn made was pent somewhere between too much knowing and shaded amusement, "So tell him that."

"Tell her you're safe." Her palm was already curving the mug, both hands suddenly lifting it up worshipfully, like it was her premium prize for winning.

"She'd never believe me."

A singular and combined sadness welled between them as he shrugged into a turn and jammed the pot back into its home.

"No," Ally confessed a sort of known truth into his assumption, "she wouldn't. Tell her anyhow."

"Why do you care?" he was shrugging loosely at her, arms suddenly crossing the wide expanse of his chest as he stared her down across the bar.

"Because I… honestly have no idea." A huffed half laugh came off her before she took a long sip of hot coffee, "I shouldn't."

"But?" he asked into smiling.

"Nuh uh." She lifted the mug up higher between them, "I'm not that drunk."

Quinn studied the light slacking of confidence in her brightened glance, recognizing the momentary lapse of her pride and assurance, "Go tell him it's time to go home. That's all he's waiting for."

"He's enjoying himself." She shook her head into staring into the darkness of the coffee she'd set back to the bar, "It's not my - "

"He's waiting for you to tell him. That's how it works, Jarry. You need to show up and be the other half of that patch." His broad shoulders seemed more insistent than threatening as he leaned toward her, catching the way Chibs was very suddenly watching their interaction from yards away, distractedly listening to one of the Diosa girls as she touched against his arm, "If you're just gonna sit here with me playing Yenta then those girls are gonna take up that space. And fast."

She didn't bite onto the baiting at first, her jaw lifting slowly as she took in the words he'd dropped so easily between them.

And it was a slow turn of her head to find Telford across the room.

And he watched them hold a glance and thought that maybe that's what atomic explosions looked like from deep space. Flared up but so very far away. Blazing, but primarily unreachable.

"I find it both awkward and adorable that you reference musicals." Her tone was calm but suddenly edged up as her head turned back and her hair did something in its shift from her shoulder that even he found hard to ignore, "Double Jameson. Neat."

He pinched her a questioning glance at first, studying the rising flush on her generally light skinned cheeks.

"Now, please." Ally nodded sharply into the lift in her shoulders and the sudden cool rise of directness in her tone.

Rane grinned as he blindly reached back for the bottle, flipping a pony glass up to pour as he huffed off an amused noise, "You really aren't that drunk."

She took the drink he handed up to her with a quick hand and a polite nodding of thanks before her breath went curt, "Let your balls drop and go tell Lyla that you'd like to put her against a wall and then cuddle the shit out of her all night, huh?"

"Matchmaker, matchmaker." He taunted so quietly between them that she barely heard the teasing.

"Don't be such a pussy." She stretched so gracefully off the stool that the long lines of her seemed more attune to a soft stretching than anything involving a firearm, "She's starting to question your interest."

He swallowed hard as he lifted his jaw into questioning, watching her take up both the coffee and the whiskey in her hands, "She knows?"

"You think a woman doesn't know when a man can't stop looking at her?" the delicate shake of her head made her hair crowd her face as her nose wrinkled into a knowing laugh that she breathed out between them, "You think I don't know he's looking at me right now?"

"Like you're the only other person in this room." He was shaking his head into amusement, catching the way Telford was silently aiming a near on unreadable glancing in their direction from his half lean against the billiard table across the room.

"Right now," she lifted both full hands, seemingly mostly long limbs and surety as she gave him a smile and a shrug, "I am."


	40. Chapter 40

He liked the way she walked toward him like she had no place else to go.

Because he couldn't stand the reality that she had a home and a place and a spot in the world that did not need his presence in order to be complete.

But then, she'd also whipped his ass so thoroughly in front of everyone that a bit of him still proudly smarted on it. So he leaned into the way one of the girls was rubbing the pads of her fingers up under his sleeve and against the inside of his forearm as she spoke and he only half heard.

And he lost the point of what she was saying at the very same moment he met the way Ally's eyes completely avoided the other woman and held his, as though nothing would alter the course of her intention. His other hand lifted into the way she curved the whiskey glass into him, her body laying up into his so intentionally slowly as she sipped coffee that he couldn't help but watch her mouth against the rim of the mug.

"Hello, my love." The words were a gracious and guttered whisper into the way she slanted her hips so intentionally flush into his even as she let her shoulders stay leaned back, purposefully letting her weight lean him harder back into the table.

There was such a feral and keen darkness in her eyes as she turned one marginal glance toward the other woman's glaring before her jaw angled back. "It's time to go home."

"Is it now?" he flecked a taunt into the question, jaw rising as he flexed his fingers open into the way the other woman was still touching him. "Sure seem to be having a nice time with Quinn."

Her free hand clenched into his shirt as she shrugged another swallow of coffee, silent in his watching and the complete stillness of him. Her features slackened into such a sure movement of disregard for the other woman, her knee rising to shift into the side of the table and break a demanding space between them as she drew the cup from her lips. The smile that he gave her for the easy shifting was a whole new prize she planned to keep and she winked at him as she watched him down the whiskey and set the glass back.

"Take me home, Filip." She murmured as she smiled victoriously into the way his hands, both of them, rose into her ribs to grip up fabric to pull her closer – breaking any physical contact he'd had with the other brunette. "Let these boys play with their toys."

"Their toys are my toys. I'm just kind enough to share." Chibs cocked between them with a hazy tease, leaning back farther to force her knee into catching and pressing his side and the table at once with an up dragging hand to the back of her thigh.

"Take me home." She let him pluck the cup from her fingers without complaint with the other hand, setting it aside and laying palms back to her as the other woman shifted away, "I'm tired of playing."

"Maybe I'm just starting." He lifted a shrugging between them as his voice dragged low, face dipping to find the low cut cross of her shirt over her breasts.

"No." She breathed out slowly as his mouth grazed skin, her eyes intentionally shut as she let her head dip forward over his, "You're finished."

"Am I?" he was playing on her, teasing with hands and voice.

"Completely." She agreed over the angling of his head, "Take me home, President."

"This is my home, Lieutenant." He told her on the lift of his head away from warm skin, turning her up a glance that had gone challenging.

"Oh, okay." She nodded slowly as she sucked in a breath and pressed her shoulders back away from him, dipping her head to the side and toward the crowd, "Then take her home."

"Ah." He grabbed into her sudden cooled shifting, lifting her chest back into the way he sat up straighter, "Where you goin'?"

"Home." Ally told him succinctly, her face panning pale skinned and sure.

"No, you're not." He shook his head up at her on a smirk.

"Yes, Filip. I am. Whether you're coming or not."

The groaned appreciation of her saucy directness was caging off his throat as he angled his smiling mouth into the side of her neck, fingers pried up into her hair as she let her shoulders loosen up and her hips angle into the way he was tugging her tighter. His knee came up between her legs as he pulled on her, sinking their combined weight back so that his leveraging onto the billiard table pulled her up with him. She let him tug at the way she was perched up on a boot toed balance, pulling her up with a bracing hand so that she followed into his movements as he shifted back on the table even farther and lifted her into his lap. Her knees bent into the edge of the table awkwardly as she leaned her weight forward, letting him support her as she pressed up against the front of him. Ally shook an affectionately warmed glance over him as he stroked his fingers up under the hem of her shirt, giving her a good natured wink as his jaw lifted boyishly.

"Stay here. Stay with me." He pressed up into the way she was raised higher than he was, broad palms spanning her sides and back as he kept her lifted up over him.

The saddened sinking of her shoulders met the shake of her head as she rubbed her fingertips along leather, "I have to - "

"Not bein' contrary, darlin'. Told Tiggy we'd play a few hands. Stay with me?" He was plying her pelvis into his stomach, still raising a pleading softly up between them that circumvented any of the cockiness he'd been playing between them earlier, "Just a few rounds and I'll drive home. Won't even keep you up all night."

"Tigger's already otherwise occupied, Filip." A broad smile suddenly tracked over her face that had him unconsciously smirking in response, "And you probably wouldn't keep me up all that late, anyhow."

A chuffed laugh came off his lips as he sank into the warm scent of sass she was letting off, laying his mouth back along her throat and whispering, "What're you implying, Lieutenant?"

"Scotty - "

He grinned into her suddenly dipping interruption, "No, you distinctly - "

"Filip." Her voice had sheared off of humor, banked the edge of their playfulness and shouldered directly into orderly and sincerely serious, "Gaige."

He didn't necessarily mean to grip so tightly into her waist but he realized how hard pressed his fingers were when she angled her shoulders into the way he was curling her so intensely close that she had to cage her hands to his shoulders. And instead of turning to find the other man, he kept his lifted glance to her face, watching the waver between concern and disgusted annoyance and determination that wiped her eyes and made him suddenly undeniably proud of her visceral response. Her anger framed her bones and muscles so neatly defensively prepared that he hadn't needed to turn to know exactly where the Irishman was in the room.

"Here?" Chibs murmured as he watched her tongue slick between her lips before she bit down.

"Yes." She bit out quietly, a jaunt of brightened surprised glittering her eyes when his response was to draw one hand up and catch her jaw into meeting his.

"Good." He grit between them quietly, lifting his head into the way he was pulling down on her, fingers tight clamped to her jaw as he rubbed his mouth to hers, "Somethin' I think he ought t'see."

"Filip." There was still a tracing of caution in the way she whispered his name onto his lips.

"Shut up and kiss me." He hushed the words into her mouth just before his tongue skated against hers, head lifting to press their mouths closed as he pulled her down closer into the kissing. He kept her intentionally tight and clamped against moving, his mouth roughing hers as his hand spanned her face and she let both hands curl along his shoulders.

He hadn't released her until he'd felt the hitch of her lungs searching for oxygen, her forward swaying gone breathless as she kept her eyes closed, "That was completely juvenile."

"Kiss me again." He demanded into the way he kept wiping their mouths together, his tongue teasing the coffee tint on her bottom lip before he laid the whiskey taste back onto her.

Ally drew off the kiss this time with a smirking, "Because of Gaige?"

"Because I like kissin' you." His lashes had gone awfully low toward his cheeks even though his head was lifted high, "Because every person in this room needs to know where you belong, Althea. Him included."

"Where do I belong?" the murmured the kissing question onto his mouth.

He grinned into cocking his head and tugging her tighter, "Right here."

* * *

><p>It wasn't often that he so blatantly and tightly held her hand in his in front of the world. She wished she had more mental space to savor it in but instead she just laced their palms closer, fingers wrapped up between his, rings biting on her as he kept her close but back. And usually she would have found the way he kept her leaned a step behind a warning sign of some sort, but not with the way Gaige managed to tip into his space before they'd even reached the door.<p>

"Awfully early for you to be leavin', Filip." The blonde was sipping something from a pint glass that was far harder than what was coming out of kegs and his eyes were glittered up with some secret humor all to his own. "Isn't it?"

"Not when I have such a delightful reason to be ditchin' your ass, Cal." There was an unheard of patience lathing the Scot's tone and she breathed out into it, letting her thumb wipe against his as he offered the other man a caged smile, "You behave yourself, now. Hap'll be watchin' out for ya should there be any trouble."

"No trouble at all. My best behavior, of course." Blue eyes drifted off Telford and leaned undeniably in her direction, hazing closer to gray in sudden scrutiny, "You didn't like the gift? I expected some sort of 'thank you', Althea. We've discussed your lack of manners before."

She felt the way his body live wired up from the grip of her hand on up his spine to his shoulders, "Y'don't speak - "

"Had I appreciated it, of course I would have let you know with a note." She let the interruption soften between them, keeping her fingers curled up in his even as she leveled them to standing beside each other, "Hand delivered and gilded and diamond encrusted."

"I hear a 'however'." Gaige gave her an expectant and rueful smile, his lean jaw lifted as he dipped closer to her.

"However, the only reason I haven't painted these pretty new walls with your skull is because of this man." She just nodded the assertion curtly between them, voice even toned and intentionally blank of emotion.

Cal gave her a chippy shrug that burned her annoyance like a spray of gasoline on an already too high fire, "And his daughter."

"And his daughter." She nodded into a darkness that seemed to well so deep it merged and flowed matching with whatever both men were capable of between murderous and macabre, her free hand lifting to crook the blonde closer on a whisper, "C'mere."

"Ally." Chibs tightened his fingers into the only hold he seemed to momentarily have on her.

"Closer." Her jaw lifted into the grinning that Gaige swayed between them as she angled them near on flush, regardless of Telford's warning hand.

"I'm a big girl. You can leave me all the lovely little gifts you like." Her free hand had caged soft and long into Gaige's jaw and she felt him lean into it and away from the whispering murmur she tipped on his opposite ear, "But if I find out you've touched an inch of that girl, I will personally feed your testicles to Trager's dog while you watch."

"And?" his breath was whiskey warm on her palm, fetid and sweated hot.

She smiled her eyes closed as she laid her mouth closer to his ear, "And enjoy it."

"Althea." Chibs tugged hard into her fingers, eyes thin as he stepped forward and simultaneously drew her back, "Say 'good night'."

"Good night, Cal." Her hand had pried from the Scot's in the same shunted movement that marked her away from Gaige and her steps were clear and precise as she moved away from them.

"Good night." The blonde agreed on a rushed exhalation, his features casted perplexed and amused at once, "I think I'm in love, Filip. She's phenomenal."

"And mine." Telford grazed over him tightly, keeping his glance firmly fixed on the blonde's long and thin features, "Find your own, Callum. Because that's the one I just don't share with anyone else."

"I can see why." The other man lifted his glass in a sort of slowly shallow agreement, as though they'd brokered some sort of deal without saying a word to it.

"She wants your brains outside your head, y'know that?" Chibs nodded as he started a backwards step to the door, a half smile perking his lips, "Keep tellin' her to mind her own."

Gaige lifted the glass even higher and he nodded into near laughter, "I appreciate you keeping her tethered then."

"Tethered is the very last word I'd use in regards to Althea." He laid a pure and honest seriousness into the words as he lifted open hands with a dipped jaw, "Mind yourself, Callum. You're treadin' thin."

The other man let the glass lower as more space filled between them, "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

><p>She'd been so very darkly quiet in the car, one hand gripped deep into the fabric of his pants and set stone solid to the top of his thigh while the other fingers had fidgeted back and forth over her lips. He'd kept to quiet because he'd felt the corded tension in her when he'd dropped a hand to her wrist and rubbed on chilled skin. Even in entering the house and dumping a scattering of combined possessions throughout it, she'd been so hush on him that he thought maybe a disaster had come and gone and he'd missed the wailed warning of it.<p>

"Kerrianne needs to be here."

They were the first words she'd given him in nearly an hour and he merely blinked a sort of acceptance into them as he watched her turn in her bathroom door, her hands bracing up the frame like she was the sturdiest thing holding the house still standing. Maybe she was. Maybe she was the keystone and he just hadn't realized how much weight was pressing in on thinned shoulders.

"Last words I ever thought'd come outta your mouth, Lieutenant." He leaned forward from the way he'd been set quietly to the edge of her bed and watching her change into one of his shirts and not much else.

"I mean it." She wiped against her mouth as she stepped forward but the sudden stall of her had him letting his glance linger up her toned thighs to the hem of his shirt. "Filip, I mean it."

She seemed to know where his glance was resting because she self consciously fidgeted her fingers against the wear loosened buttons as she half shifted back away from him, bare feet to carpet that suddenly seemed too soft for the likes of the both of them.

"You're shakin'." He murmured the realization as he lifted his head from watching long tremoring fingers, eyes catching her glance as he shook his head, "Really? Ally - "

"She's your daughter, Filip. You need to protect her." Her voice had gone rapid and into a manic sort of scatter as he'd stood and forcefully stepped up into her space, catching her back-stepping still with hands drawn onto her wrists, "I can - "

"Ally, breathe deep." He watched her eyes twist new colors alive before she shook her glance away from him, the suddenly delicate seeming bones of her shoulders lifting in a weakened defense as she started pulling from him.

She was shaking her head in some silent negation that he didn't and couldn't understand, because something had wrecked up in her head, something had trip-wired her into tossing hard and he wasn't sure why, "I can back off while she's here if that'd make it easier. I mean, I get that it'd be awkward. I'm not saying that - "

"Look at me." He closed his hands on her wrists and tugged her back up forward and instantly knew from the rise of dark brown in her eyes that it had been the wrong shifting to make in the middle of the moment she was having without him, "This is more than Gaige bein' a little shit. Isn't it?"

She'd been so proudly strong just an hour before.

So righteously wild and duplicitously dark.

It wasn't him laying waste to her internal rampaging.

It was everything she wouldn't tell him, everything that washed her pale and had her slapping at nothing in her sleep.

"She's your daughter." Her eyes seemed suddenly clear as she looked at him, looked as though they'd not met until moments before, "Don't you let him hurt her."

He leaned a sweetly placed shake of the head at her, exhaling as he loosened his hold on her wrists to just touching, "What happened with your father, Ally?"

"Nothing." She shook off sharply, dragging out of his hold with jerked hands. "No."

"Althea, look at me." He just grasped into his own shirt to still her because he could feel the jitter on her that would never hold true to their games of force, not right then, not when her eyes were brackish, "How'd your father die?"

She blinked a surprise at him, something of a slight confusion as she shook her head and exhaled, "He had a heart attack in his kitchen in Lafayette when I was thirty six."

"Then - "

"He tried to stop Sean." She explained, her head angling down as her voice curved into a softened defense of a dead man. "He did try. He just didn't know how."

"You mean this." He spanned his fingers down her front to wipe her right hip, thumb marking along where the scar fell.

"He wasn't like you, Filip." He wasn't sure if it was some sort of accusation or explanation but it tripped off her lips so damningly quickly that he didn't stop her from turning half away from him, "He didn't know how to save his daughter. You fucking do. So do it."

"What happened?" he asked instead of demanding, bent farther than he usually would have before breaking on her.

"He'd sent everyone else out of the room. And my father… he couldn't stop him."

She wasn't seeing him. She wasn't seeing anything.

And he disliked how far down she kept her head leaning.

"I was just bleeding out and he had to watch. There was nothing he could do but watch his daughter die. He didn't know how..." The vacancy of her voice was too cold in the center of an otherwise stilled room, "He wasn't like you. You would've cut your way out and killed him right there."

"All right, sweetheart." His hands grazed slow and cautious to her hips, rising to her ribs to draw her back even as her spine rammed straight. "C'mere."

"Don't." The jacked lift of her shoulder would have shunted him off if he'd been a smarter man. Unfortunately, he'd given up on smarts and sense long before she'd curled him up against her and used his name like permission to have more than what could just fit in his hands.

"Althea, let me do this." He kept his arms tautened up as he wrapped up her waist and drew her back, disregarding the clench of her frame for the lean of his chin along her too tensed shoulder, "Lemme in, mo ghràidh."

Her shoulders dropped loose slowly, matching the dousing of breath from her lungs as her head turned a fraction, "Call Fiona."

"I will." He nodded his jaw wiping into the full dark fall of her hair, biting against his jaw as he stepped her back with him into sinking onto the edge of the mattress, "Come on."

At least she leaned more pliant into him, even if she still wouldn't meet the rise of his eyes or even turn her head into the warmth of his whispering, "You need to - "

"Right now, everything I do is for that girl." Filip laid the orderly and whispered interruption along dark strands of hair, turning his lips into its silkiness, "My family, my club, and you. Trust me, Ally. In this? Trust me."

"Call your wife, Telford." She told him into reaching against his face, letting her fingers tease back into his beard while her head laid long into his.

"She's not my wife." He corrected on a slow rise and fall of breathing, his hands shifting her farther into his lap so that he could rub soothing on her thigh, keeping his other hand flush to her stomach to still her back into him.

"You know what I mean."

"I do." He lifted one hand off of curling her up to turn her jaw, leaning her profile toward him, "Look at me, darlin'."

She still wouldn't turn her eyes on him but the lean of her head into his hand was enough to sate him, "What?"

"She's not mine." He kissed onto her cheek, letting his lips rub a warmth against already flushed up skin, "You are."

A certain swift rising of something like pride angled her spine and shoulders back up higher as an almost smile broached the blankness of her paled features before she angled her cheek into him, "I don't like those girls touching you."

"Don't much like you touchin' Gaige, either." He countered quickly, dropping a sharp kiss against the corner of her mouth.

Ally waved it off briefly as her spine laxed and curved back into his chest, her body loosening up into the way he was cradling her back into himself, "That was to make a point."

"And so was she." Chibs murmured low along her shoulder, "Point bein', you needed to show her that she was in your place."

"I'm not stupid. I know how MCs work, Telford. Pussy is pussy and it's everywhere and free for the taking and in your MC it just happens to be primo pussy." The lift and flung out fall of her long hand just carried into the out loud dumping of her thoughts, "I mean, escorts and porn stars? For fuck's sake, Lyla is one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen. I would probably go down on her if she got me drunk and asked me nicely."

He couldn't help smiling into the fact that she had no idea he found her more enticing in his shirt and bare feet and vulnerable sass than the prettily made up girls she was so distracted by, "You're ramblin'."

"This is mine." She slapped the words back toward him tightly, her breath rushing long off her lungs as she shook her head and finally looked over her shoulder at him with such certainty that he thought maybe she'd had the words in her head since forever ago, "This belongs to me. I can't sleep next to you knowing that another woman had your dick in her mouth right before you came home. Let alone anywhere else you or she may have put it."

"Ally."

Her hair did something soft against his jaw that had his stomach dropping as she shook her head, "But I get it. I get that - "

"Althea." He kept an eased humor into the softness of his voice.

"Let me finish." The petulance in her demand raised her tone higher and slapped it echoing off the otherwise quiet walls, "This is mine. And you know I have no problems taking you on most anywhere and most any time."

He grinned a nod back onto her shoulder, letting the palm that was spanning her thigh dig into laxed muscle, "That I do."

"Obviously." Bemused shamelessness graced her voice, "I'm not stupid. I know your life isn't the best environment for fostering a faithful relationship, but - "

"Why y'think I pushed at you today? Huh? Spent the day makin' it damn clear to all of them that you're my wayside, yeah?" his fingers tripped and teased up under the hem of his shirt, tracing up her pelvis to playfully trace bare skin.

"Wayside?" Ally repeated into rubbing the tensed muscles of his forearm, once again avoiding his glance even as her words went gentle, "As in fall along the…?"

"More like a place to rest. S'what Tiggy called you once." His chin ducked her hair aside enough to let his mouth lay open along her throat, the trace of his fingertips knowing the exact stretching shift to find the warm and tensed inside of one thigh. "Stuck with me."

"Poetic." She banked an arched glance over him that tripped haughty as his fingers pried her legs farther apart, a smile on his mouth that seemed more than smug as he tested into warm wetness, "You boys should go on the road."

His nose nudged intentionally up along the back of her ear, fingers dipping lower as she sighed off into reaching for his cheek, running touches along a scar he'd damn near forgotten was there, "Missin' my point, Lieutenant."

"No, I'm not." She shook her head closer into his culled tone and the way his thumb had rounded her clit just within a fractioned up second of a finger driving into her, "Call your ex-wife."

"Right now?" A chuckle warmed on her ear as he stretched deeper into her slowly, another finger added and his other hand locking her down deeper into his lap, "You're fast killin' the mood, darlin'."

"You're not getting a goddamn thing until I know you've taken care of it."

He believed it by the prying of her fingers on his face and the turn of her cheek against his searching mouth, voice sharpened up.

"Sweet Christ," His eyes shut into leaning into her turned jaw, "I'm not callin' Fi when I'm two fingers deep in a beautiful wet woman."

"Now." That same dank darkness from earlier was laying low in her throat and it maybe, for some unexplainable reason, made him want her more rather than less.

"You're wicked, Lieutenant." He tapped his thumb on her clit in retort, feeling the dig of her fingers against him in whimpered response, "Completely black hearted some days."

Her eyes were slacked closed as she laid her head into his in a sort of safe weariness, a silently admitted bankruptcy of fight, "Now, Filip."

His jaw lifted away from her leaning as he stroked his damp fingers long down the stretch of her thigh, angling to shift the other hand into his pocket in search of his phone. She started a shifting off him and he made a slanted sound of disagreement in his throat, hand clenching into her thigh before both arms came back around her, phone opened and leaned before her as he thumbed the speed dial.

"This what you need, Althea?" He asked over her shoulder tightly, not even knowing himself if he was angry for the emotional hijacking or somewhat flattered and entangled by how invested she was. "T'know that I mean it?"

Another shuddered breath came off her as he lifted the phone to his ear, head angled back even as he kept her caged closed into his chest. "I need to know you're taking care of your daughter."

"Sure, another conversation starter that's just gonna kill the - " His voice broke off the teasing suddenly, breath tripping up as the other end of the line connected. "Sorry for wakin' ya."

She could just barely hear the other woman's voice and she shut her eyes against it, angling her head away from the hummed sound of it as she wiped her palm flat to the way he was keeping his hand full flush to her stomach.

"Don't want her in Glasgow, Fi." The softness he used was familiar enough, but there was less heat to it, something more of affectionate comfort – at least until he'd leaned off the edge of patience and it had hardened slightly, "I want her here, where I can watch her. Doesn't need to be permanent. Just til Gaige is settled in and I can - "

The interruption from the other end lasted just long enough for him to expel a derisive nearly laughing noise as he shook his head and shifted her tighter back into him, disregarding her forward leaning to lay her back and wipe her head braced onto his shoulder with a flat palm to her forehead.

"I know that." He turned his mouth into the phone, keeping his tone clean and quick as he kept her hair back off her face, "I'm taking care of it. Settle her on it however ya want but until I'm sure he's not touching her, I want her close."

She kept still into the sighed frustration that lagged off his lungs.

"Then call me." There was a twisting agreement in his tone, "Thank you."

Ally turned an appreciative and quick kiss into his scruffed jaw, leaning tighter into the familiarly welcome smell of him as he rattled the phone to the bedside table.

"That was cruel." He shaded her a pouting glance, his jaw twitching into the way he slicked his tongue to his teeth as he dragged her down into his groin. "I'm useless now."

"Far from it, Scotty." Ally shrugged him a sweetened up smile, turning her hips then shoulders into the way she lifted her knee to his side and nudged into his chest. "Down."

Chibs let a broad smile cure over the frustration that had hardened his jaw up, shaking his head back on his shoulders as his voice went playful, "She'll kill me with this cruelty yet, Lord."

"He can't save you from me, Filip." She shoved her fingers into the center of his chest, smirking into the way his shoulders banked toward the mattress in a pleased surrender, "So just lay down."


	41. Chapter 41

He couldn't have slept all that much, not with the way his eyes were brightened up and glossed with a brand of knowing that almost had her uncomfortable under his scrutiny. She blinked into sleepiness, letting her eyes dip back closed into the way he was guardingly leaned over her with a palm spanned flat between her breasts and his head lifted to the other hand. He couldn't have really slept at all, because she'd only gotten a few fitful hours and she realized somewhere in the muddle of waking that every time she'd rattled herself awake in darkness, he'd lulled her back to sleep with a near instantaneous hushing that came off his throat and not his lips.

"Sorry."

She shook her head into the lean of his chest over her, rubbing her forehead against how sturdily strong his collarbone was in comparison to any bone she owned herself. There was a lay of safety in the pass between his shoulders, front and back, that always undid her. Before the ink overtook his chest, before anything else reminded her of how they'd met in a modern day brothel and spent more time in the dark than the light. That was where she could lean and know that he made her nearly untouchable. Just the sure stretch of his neck to shoulders as guard made her something invulnerable some days.

"And for what?" It didn't seem to be a question he really needed an answer to because even in asking it he'd already sloped his palm up her throat, laying his hand there as he'd dipped his jaw and let beard and stubble rough against her temple. "Sleep a little longer."

"Time is it?" Her shoulders lifted into curling toward him, letting his hand intentionally tangle knotted into her hair and tug there as she swallowed the sweat and sex and whiskey warm smell off him.

"You've still awhile." The palm of his hand was so deliberately guarding to the back of her head, so intentionally strongly cradling.

It lagged a shiver through her lungs as she exhaled. Because she realized that he'd been curing and caring for her since the night before, when he'd leaned his arms around her and asked to just be privy to her weakness. Even when she'd intentionally pushed him into doing something he may not have been ready to do, there had still been such a softened caution and aching comforting in his movements. She dug up tighter into his chest into the realization that he'd needed to be that guard for the both of them, feeling her cheeks flush a brightened embarrassment against his throat as she tagged their legs up into a tangle.

The realization that he knew exactly how much longer she had to sleep before dragging her ass from a too comfortable bed was just near on as jarring to her.

He'd been on guard for far longer than she'd realized.

Maybe since the first time he'd laid himself between her and the threat of injury.

"I won't give you shit about the 'old lady' thing." She shrugged it along his collarbone as her fingers grazed on his ribs, both another apology and a gift in return for his gentleness.

"Told you t'sleep." He murmured through the breathy laugh he laid into her hair.

She stroked her hand up his chest in more of a reflex than she'd realized, catching up his head so that she could just look at him. Her glance tipping over the slackening of his cheeks and the tired dip of his lids over a warmed up and chocolated brown. The scars seemed like something that just shored him up anymore, a reminder of how stubbornly and attractively resilient he could be. His lips parted as he watched her search over the stubble that shaded his jaw into the run of his beard. Ally blinked slowly as she looked over his lips and back up to meet the patient waiting in his eyes.

The surprised and mildly confused speculation he gave into her searching went dipping heavy between them but she just shook her head on a half smile, keeping his head up before she wiped her fingers under the wearied lines beneath one eye. They stroked down past the scar to wipe his lips in a way that had him flinching under such unspoken gentleness, his head jerking back in a sudden reflex, like her softness was the too-hot-handled surprise of something burning.

She was looking at him far too innocently for him to easily lean into.

Too lovingly and accepting for him to believe in without questioning.

"What?" he asked into the way she wiped a fingertip down his beard.

"Sometimes you're just a sweet man, Filip." The whisper was quietly made, like she didn't want even the empty room to hear it lift between them, as though voicing it could make it an impossibility. "That scares me more than the criminal."

A flinching lined the corners of his eyes as he pressed his lips together and turned his own looking to lay down over the front of her, his palm dropping to press her onto her back. And she let the movement go easy, because he'd been nothing but so gently careful with her since they'd stepped back through the door. He'd found and kept them a quieted place in the middle of so much raging and raucous loud – a stalled up moment wherein he was just the man she momentarily needed him to be. The stronger one. The one that she let herself lean into, even when she didn't want to need to lean into anything or anyone.

"Loving's more dangerous than killin', Althea." The tone he used was authoritative and secretive at once, like he was giving her information she shouldn't be allowed to hold between the two of them, "You kill someone and they're no longer a threat. You love someone, and that's all they are."

"A threat?" She relaxed her spine into the mattress, hands catching up flat palmed against his scarred cheeks as he drew up over her on arms that were seemingly flexed stronger than she remembered them being.

"The threat." He corrected, intentionally weighting the words past his accent as he studied her face with what looked like mix between aching and wanting. "You're awfully pretty when you're mussed, Lieutenant."

She flicked him a semi amused glance, lifting her jaw and her shoulder into the way she reached for a kiss from him. His mouth met hers with a sure slowness that he sank a groaning into as he palmed her hip and shifted into settling over her, letting his head angled down along her shoulder. The curling of her arms along his shoulders was such a familiarly comforting stretch of movement that cradling one arm up under her ensured its completion, wrapping them up as he angled weight over her.

"Christ, are you threatening me again, Telford?" there was an obvious moaning tweak of humor to her tone and he chuckled quietly in response, pinching hard into her hip and drawing a laugh off her as he raked his fingers down her hip toward ticklish.

He lifted his head into watching her laugh, resting into the way it broke over her face before she tried to duck away from the searching but sweetly comfortable dark of his eyes and the taunting pass of his fingers. The stretch of him leaned long into that uninhibited and seemingly guiltless pleasure, the messy pale and sleep muddled wreck of her unavoidably pure and perfect as he kissed her toward exactly what he wanted. Letting himself taste the way her laughter felt valving off her throat as he lagged his lips down and pulled her legs apart with a sure hand.

"Next time?" her whisper went warmly run down over him along with her fingers sloping his shoulder, "Just kill me, Scotty."

"Ah, no," he breathed humor through the shake of his head as he lifted her a grin, blinking into the way she watched the lifting of his smile, "plenty worth stickin' around for, Althea."

Her fingers wiped against his lips again and this time he sighed an eyes shut smile into the touching as she exhaled sharply, "Prove it."

His eyes flicked up at her brightly at the way her tone had meted out a challenge, teeth nipping against her finger with a nod of acceptance before he jerked her hips roughly down under his, fingers finding their way back to the soft spots that made her thread unassailable laughter into the quiet room.

* * *

><p>She rolled her eyes into the way he silently pulled her half empty coffee cup from her fingers before he continued on through the kitchen, the drop of his boots echoing a thump behind her as she let both palms flatten the counter. Ally shifted a turn and laid her arms across her chest, watching him sip against the mug with a smirk that tipped far cockier than usual, fully dressed save for his boots and cut. Her jaw angled back and forth as she bit onto her own smile, watching him set the commandeered mug to the table before he slacked back in the chair. The scrubbed smell of him out of the shower was something that hung up around her and felt ridiculously abnormal in how normal it seemed.<p>

"C'mere." The tip of his head matched the undeniably haughty and sated look that was grazing his features as he slacked his hips lower in the chair, his voice so affectionately warmed up that she felt her shoulders slide forward even against her better judgment.

"No." Ally shook off, snapping the hair tie off her wrist before she lifted her hands into sliding her hair back off her face. "You'll make me late."

"I won't. Y'still have half an hour." he lifted the mug once again, intentionally swallowing hard just to rub annoyance on the fact that she obviously wasn't getting it back. "Come over here."

"Filip." She let a lagging into her tone as she sluiced her hair back, twisting it back and winding it up even as she leaned slowly made steps toward him. "Don't."

"Don't tell me no." he admonished with a gentled smile, catching into the fabric of her uniform pants to tug her forward teasingly, drawing against her belt with the other hand to drag her into his lap roughly but with guardingly careful hands. "Hate it when you tell me no."

"That's because you have a really hard time accepting not getting what you want."

Chibs gave her a quick grin, tucking her closer by the dark fabric, "Yes. Exactly that. Observant, Lieutenant."

"Go to hell." She hushed the whisper down close to his lips.

"Meet me there." He clipped a kiss against her before slacking roughly back in the chair, reaching for the nearly empty coffee.

She wiped back against her hair before her hands dropped, sloping the full stretch of each palm under his collar edges to curve on his neck and toward the backs of his shoulders as she let him shift her tighter and farther into him with nudging knees and thighs. He tipped back the last of the coffee with a grinning that still brightened his face past the pale it'd had lately.

"You are absolutely smug right now." Ally flexed her fingertips into the muscles at the back of his neck, rubbing into them lightly.

"Just happy." Chibs jacked his shoulders into a shrugging as he set the emptied cup away with pushing fingers.

"Happy?" she breathed out a laughed noise through her nose, "With all the - "

"Haven't had many of these moments lately, Ally." His whisper had lowered lagging but relaxed and calmed, "Let me keep this one."

She nodded unweighted agreement as she wiped down along his throat, blinking over the way he was still half smirking as he slowly let his lungs exhale and she rubbed the sides of her thumbs along his collarbone. "You putting the Reaper around us both, Scotty? Making people see you when they see me?"

A brief glint of confusion perked his head higher and tipped his jaw before he breathed in slowly, "Used to be the Reaper and the badge were just two sides of the same old coin in Charming, darlin'. Used to be me doin' the things you couldn't do inside the limits of the law."

"Used to be?" she was fixing a collar that needed no real fixing, fingers tucking it straight as he pressed into her ribs to find she wasn't wearing a vest, a frowning cocked up at her as he tugged on the fabric.

"You seem to think we're so different. So far away from each other." His head shook marginally back and forth, fingers still tucked in fabric, "Not true. Just a question of limits, Lieutenant. Question of caution and the application of common sense. You've got both while wearin' this and, in general, I don't care for either."

She sparked him a cocked glance, head angled into derision.

He was full of it. Sometimes he had more common sense and practicality than was kind.

Especially when his patience had been treaded up and he was shredding the last of it between them.

"You know I don't have a problem taking this town back to that place." She'd glossed over his cockiness, shrugging into him, "Because it keeps people whole."

"I know."

"But that's not what I meant." Ally shook her head into wiping down his chest, catching his fingers to disengage the way he was tucked into her, shifting slowly and gently off him before grabbing up the empty mug, "You spent yesterday showing people where I belong? Or you spent yesterday showing people what they're not allowed to touch?"

"Both." He watched the lithe line of her as she turned in the brightening kitchen, body still comfortably back and low in the chair as he quieted his voice, "That a problem?"

"Not necessarily." There was a shrugging to her that seemed formed of some sort of logical acceptance, her eyes bright brown as she looked back over him, blindly setting the mug into the sink, "You're stronger than I am."

"Not necessarily."

Ally smirked him a derisive glance as she nodded slowly, hip banking into the counter as she soothed where he'd mussed against her uniform, "Yes, you are."

"Aye." A bold grin raked his lips but there was enough humility in him that he chewed into his lip to stall it, "I am."

"I don't know how we can really make this work." She admitted into the long and simply warmed glance he was giving her, "But I want to."

"You stay in your limits." Chibs shrugged, finally shifting his shoulders forward in a sudden push of limbs, a hand dropping to draw up a boot, "And I'll handle everything out of them."

"Are you protecting me?" she asked into crossing her arms back over her chest, keeping herself tucked cleanly away from touching him, watching the way his quickly drying hair tipped forward along his cheek.

"Haven't I been?" the shrugging tone of him as he tugged the boot on seemed so innocently honest.

"And why?"

"Because when you're not bein' a right pain in my ass," That same grin delved into near dimples and she felt her body slump slightly into annoyance at the realization she wasn't going to get the full brightness of it, "you're my stillness."

She cocked him a patient glance of combined disbelief and affection as she looked over the way he smirked into grabbing up the other boot.

"When I'm not a cop I'm your old lady?" she asked softly, pressing off the counter as she stretched her fingers along his forward tilted shoulder to wipe up the back of his neck. "Huh?"

"You're the one makin' it two parts." He was shaking his head as he pulled on the other boot with a jerked shunt of movement, head lifting as his foot fall echoed round the kitchen, "I'm only seein' one, Althea."

Ally arched a brow at him, tapping against his shoulder as his glance wandered the badge and patches and back up over her face, "Awhile ago you were the one drawing lines between a cop and a criminal."

"And a fair bit's changed since then, hasn't it?" There was a clamped and battered breaking to his tone that claimed the amusement they'd been tenuously holding onto between them and she felt the swing of guilted bile in her throat in response, "And so far haven't I done everything I promised I would?"

"That wasn't for me." Ally shook off but kept her voice lulled gentle, her fingers tracing the curve of his ear in a way that had him angling into the touch as his shoulder came up reflexively, "That was for your club. For Jax."

"And his sons. And my family. And you. And Charming." He breathed out into her gentleness.

She nodded another round of acceptance, not knowing exactly where the recent wealth of patience had come from but figuring it was a result of his undeniable sweetness, "Are you protecting me?"

"Yes." He was so unabashedly sure of his response, so unembarrassed or shy about it.

"Why?" she teased his earlobe between his fingers, enjoying the way it made his spine clip back up as he finally reached into catching her fingers and curling them alongside his neck.

"Because sometimes you're too damn bold and y'don't watch around yourself like you should and y'need it." Chibs sharpened off as he angled his jaw into the way he was keeping claim to her hand, pressing it between a tipped head and a lifted shoulder, "And I can't stand the thought of anybody else doin' it."

He was making her late again. Because it was one of the things he was very best at.

And the break of an incongruent perfection between them was more than worth it.

"It goes both ways, Filip." She twisted her fingers enough to rib the side of her thumb against his cheek. "Why do you think I want Caffee here?"

"Because you're settling something." He bit out tightly, letting her loosen her hand from him as she turned back toward the counter.

"No," she waved off as she reached for a travel mug out of the dish drainer, winging it around slightly in a circle as her voice carried on assuredly, "because he's completely removed from this mess. And I can use him to watch over you. We can use him - especially with Kerrianne coming here. We need someone on our side when it comes to Gaige. Someone who doesn't have anything to lose."

Chibs grinned into the rattling on, watching her spine and the sheer soothing length of it as she poured the last of the coffee into the mug, "He's got plenty t'lose, Ally. Because I still plan to settle some things."

"That's been settled for years." He could very well tell she was making a face just by the curtailed shunting of her tone and the jut of her movements as she slapped the cover onto the mug before turning a glare back over him.

He snorted hard as his shoulders dumped back into the chair in clear and disbelieving surprise, shaking his head slowly into a tamped jaw, "Y'wanna remember who was holding onto you last night? Because it was me, Lieutenant. Don't you lie to me. You haven't settled a damn thing in that crazy head when it comes to him."

"He covers my ass with Patterson." She diverted with a shrug meant to detract from the veracity of his accusation, "He makes you getting out of the business a legitimate reality to her. She drops the club and goes reaching for Gaige because a bigger fish will give her a bigger win next election. And I know my job isn't your club's concern, but if you boys are really serious about cleaning up - "

"I get it." He murmured the interruption into studying the intensity of caramel coloring in her eyes.

"And in the event that everything goes to shit, we can always turn him over to Gaige as an olive branch." Ally leaned a dry shrugging forward as she pushed off the counter again, the mug caged up in her palm like she'd forgotten she was even holding it, "Make it seem like you're just lookin' out for an old family friend. Buys you loyalty. And maybe even Kerrianne's safety."

"That was cold, Lieutenant." He pressed slowly up from the chair, a drawn surprising hushing his tone low and long as he stepped forward and into the way she was watching his approach.

Her step back into the counter was a mistake but she didn't realize it until his shoulders dipped and before she could shift he was already caging his hands to her sides, palms onto the counter. "That's reality, President."

"Don't think I need to pull the Reaper any closer to you, love." Chibs slowly shook his head, dipping a kiss onto her slowly, laying the taste of coffee between them as she traced a moan on his tongue with her own, "Seems you two've already met."

"Pretty sure he introduced us, Scotty." The smile that curled her lips was suddenly so delightfully full and unhindered by anything.

"You were a damn fine woman last night, Lieutenant." He tipped down between them, watching her lift the mug so that she could sip from it, comfortably curled back into the way he was locked up around her.

Ally smiled even wider, her nose wrinkling a little into a mischievous swilling of amusement, "I'm a damn fine woman right now, President."

"Sure," Chibs nodded a loose agreement before he pushed back from her, turning to step around the table to where he'd laid leather against the back of one of the other chairs, his fingers catching into the collar in such a completely familiar movement, "but last night there were various alcohols and firearms involved."

"I'm going to work." She cast after him as she watched the strength of his shoulders rise and stretch as he drew the Reaper over his back, hands quick and sure as he jerked it down over his chest, "You can bask in this uber macho conquest glow all by yourself, Telford."

"Meant with Gaige, anyhow." There was a more than pleased nod on him as he stepped back forward, meeting the steps she made across the kitchen, "That play was equal parts sexy and stupid."

"Something you should be familiar with."

"Y'watch yourself, huh?" He softened even past her taunting and sassed tone, "Be my too smart girl."

Ally just nodded, "You're a gracious loser, by the way."

His smiled went furtive and grazing, "Next wager's gonna find my name tattooed across your ass, Lieutenant."

Her face panned coolly serious as she shook her head and nudged him aside, "Never gonna happen, Scotty."

"You're in love with a criminal. Y'might wanna reconsider your long list of nevers, Sheriff." His palm slapped soundly against her ass as she shifted by him and he grinned into the way it sharp turned her back up rigid into his chest, their jaws lifted evenly between amusement and her surprise.

"Might wanna reconsider being such a cocky son of a bitch if you wanna sleep in my bed tonight." The digging lowness of her tone was just barely tinted with a near lusted sweetness.

"Sure, darlin'. I'll do so while rifling through your underwear drawer."

Ally blinked into his far too self amused tone and the nearness of how comfortingly closely familiar the smell of him was becoming, "My underwear drawer?"

"Takin' some to the boys." A shrug raked his shoulders as he cocked her a full wattage grin, "They all behaved themselves last night."

"You're disgusting." Ally lazed between them with a sighed off noise of supposed annoyance, her eyes brightened too much with humor for it to carry all that much weight.

"I'm a prince compared to some." The response was murmured half around a cigarette that he'd pieced between his lips, hands open in a teasing innocence as he angled his hips into hers.

Her fingers plucked the cigarette away, holding it away from his frowning as she intentionally held dark eyes with a half hearted glaring, "My underwear do not leave this house."

"If house rules apply t'me they oughta apply to you." He took the smoke back and drew it back between his lips, palms roving his pockets for a lighter and frowning when he didn't find one, nodding toward her sharply, "Drop 'em, Lieutenant."

Ally rolled her eyes as she leaned away and tugged open the drawer beside the sink, lifting a small box of matches and tossing them up into his chest as he grinned into catching. "Don't you have something to do? Like man up and hold up your end of a bet?"

He hissed a feigned noise of pain and shook his head slowly back and forth as he wiped against his beard, drawing the still unlit cigarette back out of his mouth and palming it with the matches, "Minx."

Ally just blinked before her hip cocked in droll response, "Thug."

He tugged her up tight and rushed, keeping them leveled by a palm spanned along her ribs as he rubbed his lips along her softly pliant ones, "Be careful, Lieutenant."

She smirked into shoving him playfully back, lashes low in her smiling as she turned heading for the door, "Same to you, President."


	42. Chapter 42

Paperwork and notations and field reports and complaints weren't what she'd imagined would bury her within the last few weeks, not within the radius of Charming's blood leaked borders. But it seemed as though every goddamn piece of paperwork had landed somewhere within the long looking span of her messy desk within the hours of a morning that still carried the drilled-behind-the-eyes ache of too much wine and not enough time curled up center chest of a man who had been terrifically and terrifyingly just a man. And she was spending too much time half smiling into the way she could just almost barely smell the tint of him on her collar.

She'd been spending too much time lately focusing on him, maybe.

And that's why her desk looked the way it did. And that… was not her.

She was not that woman – is what she told herself even though she knew that it was suddenly very frankly untrue.

Ally let her shoulders slacken back in her chair, a hand suddenly wiping against her face as she reflexively shook her head at the massive amount of paperwork that had piled up in front of her and swallowed the building lump of embarrassed concern that rose up bitter tasting in the back of her throat. She'd been leaning too much focus his way, maybe. She'd been leaning too much toward him when she should have been doing exactly what he'd implied and kept watching around herself, instead of falling farther into him. He was still made of too much shadow and too little innocence for her to feel so unexplainably lulled by the way he'd sweetened over her.

What the hell was she thinking?

Except that anymore, she just absolutely wasn't.

"You look horrified, LT." Carreira was smirking over her, his vest ridging his shoulders up high and straight as he leaned back into her doorframe, his other hand braced across the open space. "It's like somebody churned up the entire Amazon and dumped it on your desk."

"How did this happen?" she lifted a frustrated pass of her hand between them.

"You took your day off." He shrugged a grin at her. "Shit went down at the docks yesterday. Entire Narcotics division is having a tremendous circle jerk today if you're in the mood to join."

"Just not my thing." She exhaled hard as she shook her head and let her shoulders lax farther back, "You headed out or coming back in?"

"I can hang back." He nodded toward the paperwork, "Jess is out for PT this afternoon so I'm solo. Need a hand?"

"I'll buy the lunch you order in for us." She just smiled appreciation into the apologetic offer he was leaning her way, a quick nod drawing his jaw down as he tapped at the doorframe and started leaning away.

He pointed at her quickly, "Salad or sandwich?"

She just grinned into his humor, "Heroin and a shotgun."

"Tequila it is."

* * *

><p>"What?" she lifted her head into the way he'd been not-so-surreptitiously watching across the table, letting his distracted brown-eyed glance flit between her and the windows.<p>

Ally avoided glancing behind her, instead choosing to watch the wiseass smile that was creeping across his lips like he had inside information at off track betting. "Spit it out, Luis."

"Can I ask you something, LT?" he flashed the full grin at her, letting both elbows slant the table top and crinkle over the paperwork he'd been slushing through and triaging for her, his hand waving between them while he reached for the second half of his sandwich.

She blinked lazily, letting her shoulders slope back as she dropped the pen into his intentional daze of silence, "You're gonna ask anyhow."

"The MC really dropping their corner on the gun market?" he'd let the words off a little more seriously, the smile slackening as he studied her. "Candy said - "

"It's a distinct possibility." She murmured carefully between them, letting her glance travel the report that she'd paused in the middle of signing off on. "Why?"

He just gave her a widening smile as he took a larger than life bite out of the sandwich and chewed on a slow nod, eyes brightening up as his grin washed wider once again.

"Luis - "

"Just wondering." He'd swallowed a hard on the interruption, lifting the last of the sandwich between them as he nodded bemusedly toward the conference room windows, "cause I'm pretty sure they're refusing being disarmed right now. Clark's about to bust a nut."

Ally exhaled hard into turning a glance behind her, shoulders dropping low in watching the way Trager was all shouldered up and a good four inches taller than the deputy he was leaning over on. "You're a jackass."

"Yet," he lifted the last of the sandwich, watching her head for the door as he slumped back and stretched his shoulders out, "I'm still your favorite."

"Don't bet on it."

* * *

><p>"Don't want him knowin' you're the one who brought him here." He'd perched himself up onto the conference table regardless of the piled up paperwork and she sighed into the fact road dusted boots were planked flat in one of the chair seats, "I'll handle it. I'll call 'im in. Find me a connection and I'll use it."<p>

"He's gonna figure it out." Ally shook her head slowly, her glance scattering from him to the way Tig was teasing the blinds open and closed with a rolling spin of long fingers on the shade rod. "He's not stupid, Scotty."

She realized that Telford's attention wasn't necessarily completely on her but instead down turned to his side, head cocked as he squinted into trying to read the nearest report. And the rattled run of Tig still messing with the blinds was the echoed soundtrack as the Scot shifted his gloved hand down to lift the paper closer, brows lifting into almost arching as his jaw came up and he angled the paper closer. They were both damn children, both of them easily distracted and distant and she forced herself through the soothing pass of a long exhalation before tugging the paper quickly from between his fingers.

"If you wore your glasses, you could probably see the things that aren't meant for you to read." She slanted sharply into the perturbed glance he caught up between them, "Sean will know I'm here. He probably already knows I'm here."

"So we'll deal with it then. Y'heard me, Althea." The broad stretch of his forearms bent supposedly easy in resting against his knees, the open cuffs of his shirt making his hands seem long and nearly trickily elegant in the black leather, "I don't want him knowing you're here until it's necessary."

Ally let the paper hush back onto the table, aiming it farther up the length of the wood before she turned away from him, intentionally distancing from the way he watched on her, "He's a paid informant, Filip. It's necessary. I'd be the one paying him. You're broke, remember?"

"It's not necessary. And I'm not broke." Chibs hushed into the way she slacked a turn into the wall, her body pent up tight into the surly way she curled her arms against herself, "You will not be alone with that man."

"Did you really just say that to me?" Her shoulders were suddenly stronger in their upped stretch against the wall, hip jutted out on a cocked shifting and a tone that had Tig turning a brow arched surprise rebounding between the two of them, "Really?"

The Scot ignored the rattled sound of Trager's palm wiping the blinds down closed with a flat gloved palm, "Ally - "

"Wow." There was a slick film of disgust layering over her features as she shook her jaw back and forth at him, "I mean… damn. You've never been quite so misogynistic before. It's not attractive."

"She's sorta right." Tig waved his hand away from the window before letting both palms skirt and settle his thin hips on a shrug, glance lifting toward Telford, "Chauvinism is out, brother."

Chibs banked a sardonic and withered glance between the two of them, sucking his tongue along his teeth on a huffed noise as he aimed an accusatory defense toward the other man, "Y'both know what I meant by it. And why you helpin' her? She doesn't need assistance in slapping me around. It's nothin' to do with - "

"Bullshit." Her voice struck up hard between all three of them though she didn't shift an inch from her leaning away from them.

Tig just gave him an apologetically winced shrugging, "Seconded."

"Shut up." Chibs pointed a quick lift of his hand toward Trager before swiping the aiming toward her, "And you - "

"Bullshit." She repeated the interruption into lifting her shoulders off the wall.

"Let her make the play, Chibs." Tig shrugged once again, laying his voice quieted and easy as he stepped into the chair that was before him, letting the long lanky stretch of his body drop into it roughly on a sigh, "It keeps us out of his sight line. Keeps us behind the scenes."

Ally lifted a thin and roving hand toward the way Tig was laxed back in the chair, "Thank you."

"Don't thank him. You're not in this together. We're not playin' Pictionary." The chair he'd had his feet perched in spun jerkily with the hard press of one boot toe before he slid off the edge of the table, feet tamping to the tiled floor sharply.

"Think you're wrong. I'm with her." His Vice President's voice was still laxly low and controlled, his head angling hard into the supposedly lazy pressing of his upturned palm as he spoke, "She's handled him before, right? Been his liason? So this becomes normal. It's just another round of the same. Best idea is to let her make it seem like it's normal. Worst idea is to let him know you two are anywhere near being an item."

"He's correct." Ally murmured the agreement quietly toward him, letting her shoulders settle into a sort of pleading for his patience and acceptance, "Sean'll twist that up and use it to stir shit."

"Gaige'll have him knowin' fast regardless." He swung between the both of them quietly, "I'm sayin', if this even works."

"So break it up." Tig tossed up casually from his right, the drawl of his voice intentionally softened, "Break it off. Make it public and make it messy. You let her handle Caffee and you worry about your daughter getting here. Take Kerrianne to the cabin. She stays here and works her angle."

"No." He hadn't turned back into the suggestion, keeping his glance her way even while Tig had offered an innocent solution, his jaw slacked near sadly paled, "I… no. I won't do that."

"That was adorable." There was nearly a legitimate swathing of fondness coming off her as she let her shoulders dip, "You're adorable. He doesn't mean for real."

"I don't give a shit what he means. I'm not leavin' you by yourself with the both of them around." He shook it off on a slowly ridged explanation, letting his lids lower his lashes to cover the darkness of his eyes as he shook his head, hand lifted blindly back toward Tig, "No discussion. Either of ya."

"Chibs, it's just - "

His hands came up digging against her hips so quickly that while it didn't necessarily startle her, she saw the sharp lift of Trager's head in watching as Chibs spoke, "I am damn sick of everyone in this shite little backass town telling me what I cannot have. It's not a discussion and it's nobody else's fuckin' business. You and me? It's our business. Not the Irish, or the law, or the town. Or even you, Tigger." He cast back tiredly as he leaned longer into her, head swaying back toward the way he was pressing her back to the wall as Tig pressed slowly up to step into them, "And you - "

"Filip - "

"No." he cut into her hushed tone, laying his words slow and intentionally placed, "You want out of this, you just gimme the word, darlin'. But if you're in it, you shut the hell up and let me do what I do better than anything else."

Ally angled her jaw up into his thready tone, "Which would be?"

"Take care of my own." He lifted the darkness of his eyes to hers as Tig slanted up against the wall near them, letting his shoulder weigh into it comfortably, "I'm not hidin' shit for this man. He wants to start somethin', he can start it with me. Just like Gaige."

Her earlier concerns, the fussed worrying about spending too much of her time on and with and near him… They didn't seem much to matter when he looked so desperately demanding when it came to keeping her close.

He was too adept at showing he didn't anymore care to hide that he did, in fact, actually care about her.

He made her too weak some days. And it was most often on the days when he was being too brashly honest with the entire world.

"Except he isn't. He's messin' with both of you." Tig's voice was the stop to their combined watching of each other, the thing that made the Scot flinch his jaw aside in a sign that he was listening, "She's right about Caffee, Chibs. About being his handler."

"Aye, I know." The younger man let his shoulders slack back in a loosened defeat, his whole body seeming to lose height in his nodding as his hands dropped and he motioned at her loosely, "Make the call."

"Patterson?" she asked into a tempered quietness.

"Her too." He'd cast a glance to the side to meet the affirmative dip of Trager's jaw, "But she's on you. That isn't my deal. It's yours, Althea."

"I get it." The nodding she gave him had his spine relaxing a little as he caught along her fingers and flexed them in leather, "You're still adorable, Scotty."

"Make the call." He nodded curtly into the way he squeezed against her fingers.

"Right now?"

Chibs tipped forward a mild smirk, "Right now."

"You will be silent." She tugged against his drawing hand, jerking against leathered fingers as she pulled him closer, "And you will behave yourself."

"Call him up." There was a teasing tone to him, but something a bit petulant tinted it darkly, "Tell him you need him."

"This a little kinky for you, Telford?" Ally asked as her other hand dipped into her pocket, drawing out her cell slowly as she loosened from his fingers.

A cocked glance of disregard and disbelief grazed his features, "Farthest thing from my mind right now, Lieutenant."

"I believe you." She agreed as she palmed the phone on a nod.

"I don't give a shit," his accent went strong into the thrust of his voice over her, words otherwise dropped harshly between them, "what people have t'say about you and me. I'm just a mechanic now, sweetheart. A business man. All my affairs are in order."

"You're delusional." She countered quickly, keeping her face as composed and clear of amusement as possible.

"I'm golden." He tipped off between them on a shrugging. "Make the call."

Ally lifted the slim empty hand and waved between the two of them idly, "You're both still on parole and, I have no doubt, carrying concealed weaponry."

"And you're an awfully dirty woman," Chibs responded tightly, letting the height and span of him bridge up over her again, liking the way her eyes loosely drifted his shoulders and back up to catch his glance and hold, "for lookin' so damn clean."

"Guys… this is actually getting a little uncomfortable for me." Tig's voice warmed over the both of them in a taunting humor meant to soothe even farther between the three of them, "Naw, no it's not. Just kiddin'."

"Tiggy - "

"No, because you're making it look like you're fighting but what you're actually doing is eye fucking so, ya know… carry on." He'd lifted his arm up into the wall so that he could lean into it innocently, watching them with a taunting look of supposed longing and affection as his leather whispered creaking into his shifting.

"Can't you leave him at home with the nanny?" She rolled off quietly between them, turning begging brown eyes toward the way equally dark ones were tracing over her face.

Chibs gave up a snort and a catty shrug, "He'd probably try to fuck her."

"I would not." The other man's voice lifted as he shoved off the wall with a feigned pouting, "Statutory rape would violate my parole. And I'm all about bein' an upstanding member of this community now. Charity committees and bake sales and shit."

"You're both delusional." She accused on a sweetened up smile that had all the mercy she could muster for two men who couldn't keep to themselves when it came to teasing all layers of patience off her one by every single one.

Chibs stretched fingers along her stomach, letting leather catch against her belt and pull a small tug on her, "And you're concerned this is actually gonna work."

"Because then you have to admit you care about us, AJ." Tig leaned nearly as closely, a grin making his eyes clear bright and crystalline.

"In public, no less." The Scot added playfully.

"My job - "

"Doesn't mean shit if we're clean." He interrupted with such self assured cockiness she couldn't help the urge to slap his fingers off her.

Ally lifted her jaw into the way he was still angling over her with a deep dimpled smile that she'd been waiting all day for, "Are you, Telford?"

"Better make that call." He tipped over her, "Time's wastin', my love."

* * *

><p>He paused his steps in leaving her because… because he felt it all too unfinished. He felt like there was a broaching space between them that had nothing to do with their combined psychoses and all to do with the other uncurbed madness, the lunacy that lived and thrived up around them like dry scrub grass – invasive and impossible to cut from the land they lived on. It was everything Gaige and Caffee bred between them, all the battered up frustration that came with battling blood for money or power and making limitless bets that couldn't often be paid outright. And knowing Kerrianne was closer to being where he'd wanted her for years – but that it would mean more leaning space between them rather than the warmth of how close he'd felt her that morning – leaving her didn't feel right.<p>

She'd let some sweet shifting of her guarding wall down and he knew for damn sure it was comin' right back up soon as everything came up against them in this.

At first he'd ignored the concerned and flinched glance Trager had given him upon realizing their steps were no longer so synced together, the lankier man's body turning back in a sway of confused apprehension. Tig downed his head to catch his President's glance and just blinked a half smile into the amused and tentatively swaying pause the younger man was making.

The Vice President just shook his head minutely in wondering, thinner shoulders shrugging loosely between them as his thumbs hooked his pockets in a calm slagging of his frame, "What?"

"M'not done yet, Tiggy. She doesn't get this win without payin' dues." Chibs shook his head sharply and with a flicked jaw, letting his weight turn on the heel of his boot as he stepped toward the bullpen once again, shoulders lifted into a sure and broad swath of leather, the Reaper grinning an unspoken agreement into his strong stride.

"You two are so twisted, man." Tig's voice wended warmly affectionate after the other man, the tone clipping higher after Telford's steps. "It just… does things for me, ya know?"

Chibs just smirked cockily into the other man's leading tone, head back as he stepped into the way she was watching his oncoming steps with her arms drawn defensively against herself and too much knowing brimming up bright eyes.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ally breathed out into the sudden up brushing of his steps into her tensed stillness, his body forward leaning into a certain sway of intensity as he exhaled through his nose and searched over the front of her from her hair to her hips and rising back up the line of her uniform shirt.

"Keepin' all my promises at once, mo ghràidh." He caught the flicked bounce of her glance to his hands as he lifted gloved palms at her sides, catching her eyes as they widened back toward his darker ones, "What'd I tell you once, huh? Right here, in front of everyone."

"Scotty." The warning bite of her voice was less thrashing than he'd expected and legitimately more amused, "Don't."

She said it more like a dazzling challenge of wills than a deft order of denial.

That's why he so otherwise unexplainably loved her, he thought.

Because he couldn't think of a time when she'd backed down from the rise of his jaw or the lift of his hands – even in the threatening of her.

The sudden rise of her chest as she sucked in a breath just spurred him farther forward as he slicked his tongue against his lips, leaning him up tight against her as he clasped both gloved hands up to her cheeks. And he'd known the slamming shunt of her palm was coming for his solar plexus, but she'd already drawn the air out of him just by the undeniably stubborn lift of her head into his hold. She kept her palm centered into him to keep them marginally apart and he caught the way the scruff of movement had drawn attention behind her in his peripheral.

"Lieutenant?" it was an unfamiliar voice to him and the concern that was lingering in its weight from behind him jacked his shoulders tighter to crowding over her as she lifted the other palm flat and abruptly to stall their worried attention.

He let his head angle slowly tighter toward hers, letting his eyes dip down along the marginal and breathy parting of her lips. "Tell me to stop."

"Filip." Her head leaned so barely perceptibly into his hands that he already knew he'd won her over and he smiled into the lush whispering of his name in a place it shouldn't have been so sweetly slaking off her lips.

"You love me, darlin'. Y'just can't help yourself, cop or not." He flushed his hips up into hers, wedging her into a marginal back step that had at least a handful of the other officers in the bullpen tricking up into a line up of cautioned stances, "Tell me to stop and I will."

Her eyes were just too damn bright for practicality.

That's how he really knew she wasn't backing down.

"Know what?" And her quietly cool tone curled him up close to her, clutching him unmoving as he tried to force air into his lungs and realized she'd gone from pushing to pulling, "I dare you, President."

He'd never been much a man to back down from a daring that he knew for a fact he could win. And he was fairly sure that laying his mouth to hers was a fight he'd yet to lose. So he jerked her jaw up into the swift fall of his lips bruising against hers, catching up the stuttered stoppage of her breathing in the way he drove his tongue to hers. Both his hands dragged the softened smooth of worked leather into the tied back stroke of her hair, intentionally mussing his fingers into its neatness as he cradled her down into a kiss that he wasn't giving up on. Her palm went flat flush to his sternum and the other hand stayed lifted, but her fingers loosened into a slow curl as she let him rake his teeth along her tongue and rib against her bottom lip before his head came back up from the whimpered noise that leaned off her.

Her eyes were lit bright open, flaring up like sputter-snapping candle light.

"Bastard." The murderous murmur tipped off pink roughed lips as she exhaled, her hands still loosely lifted and her body stilted back as though she didn't right now where or how or when to move. Chibs just grinned into the flush of her, not knowing if it was embarrassment or the same warm tint of color that usually slaked down her throat when he had her worked past patience.

"Have a lovely day, Lieutenant." He gave her a quick wink as he slacked his steps back, lifting his fingers into a mocking salute toward the deputy that had brushed along his side in an attempt at intimidation. "And you, Deputy."

He caught the run of her tongue along her bottom lip before she bit down, pride and rage riding a full cry battle in her wild bright eyes as he turned away from her watching and stepped into the grinning Trager met him with.

"That necessary?" Tig tipped him an even wider smirking as he turned their shoulders together, their steps leading quicker than the last attempt at leaving.

Chibs just lifted a shrugging as he wiped the fingertips of his gloved hand against his bottom lip and down his beard, "Do believe it was."


	43. Chapter 43

"You know I'm on your side." He said it as though he was already waiting out a slap from her, but his hand was so distinctly calm and graceful as he settled a large cup of coffee onto the marginally cleared spot to her right.

"But?" Ally refused to raise a glance into the way Carreira was leaned opposite her at the table, catching the way he peaked his fingers leaning on the top of one of the unread reports as she lifted the mug thankfully.

"But was that smart?" he asked in a suddenly rushed and hushed quietness, his voice curbing toward subtly secretive even though the door was closed and they were alone in the conference room.

"Not at all." She kept her tone loose but controlled as she finally looked up, sipping slowly down on the sharply bitter and half burnt coffee before nodding toward the door, "How's it playing out there?"

"Equal parts amusement, disgust, anger and jealousy." He breathed out slowly before a smiled ranged its way over his young face, "I think Duly's in the bathroom finishing himself off, actually."

She ignored the dig at the other deputy and palmed the mug into both hands, letting its warmth work against the chill in her hands that had resulted after every ounce of blood in her had rushed to somewhere between her lips and throat and the tightened rise of her collarbone, "How's it play with you, Carreira? And Eglee? You're the closest I have to - "

"I don't give a shit who you're… ya know. And Candy thinks it's hilarious." He'd finally drifted down toward sitting, his other hand slacking the chair around slowly so that he could lax back into it and tip himself back and forth in the most annoying fashion, "That was a little too Wild West stand-off for me but I like to be a lot more subtle in my romantic gestures, ya know? Flowers. Candy. Cuervo shots that lead to bathroom liasons."

Ally gave him a dipping glance that stinted arched as she lifted the mug higher, thankful to all that was supposedly holy he didn't know the illicit details of some of her more recent liasons, "That's subtle?"

"It is nowadays." He chipped her a smile that just made him seem so young, so very stupidly young, "You're playing roulette, Lieutenant. You know that'll hit Patterson by the end of the day."

"Patterson knows." Ally laid coolly between them on a feigned shrug of supposed apathy and complete control, neither of which she had in stock, "How do you know I'm not just playing him with her permission?"

"Because, right now? You're equal parts embarrassed and thirsty, LT." His too young grin swathed wide into her wide glanced glaring before he cut it down and leaned slightly forward on a nod, "You should just tell me the play so I can handle the fallout. Because half of them don't trust you right now."

Her head shook slowly into certain and sullen acknowledgement, "If they don't trust me now, they're never going to, Luis."

"Yeah, but I wanna know which ones are more likely to make a big deal out of it. Because they're the ones that are just not gonna back off the boys in leather." His body angled a little farther forward as he exhaled slowly, "Listen, if they're leaning straight, things around here could settle a little. And I'd have an extra forty five minutes for Cuervo and a random liason."

She gave him a slowly and affectionately wry smile, "You really need to re-evaluate the sort of women you're attracting, Luis."

Because he seemed far too fresh and brightly brown eyed and easily amused to fairly match a woman that would dare a man into taking her on in a liason of possibly catastrophic proportions. But she happened to know a man who could teach him something about it. And well.

"Nothin' wrong with enjoying a woman when and where she'd like to be enjoyed. Ask your friend." And the wry rolling in his tone implied maybe he well knew more about it than she assumed, and it had her ironically smiling into the way she leaned back in the chair and set the coffee aside, "He seems to know the when and where of you, Jarry."

"How long have you been in this quadrant?" She asked him on a cocked glance and an intentional deflection.

"Long enough to know where you two are trying to take this town." The deputy murmured back into the cagey and complicit tone.

"And?"

"And it mostly worked. Until they got their heads so far up their asses they couldn't see past the blood lust." She didn't speak in response because she knew that the sudden jittering rise of him into standing was a combination of concern and actual nervousness, his palms both bracing the back of the chair as he shoved it into the table and swallowed, "And he is capable of some outrageous fucking blood lust, Lieutenant. I've got at least two downright gory murders I would've liked to pin him on."

"So why didn't you?" She asked between them with a drawn out caution and curiosity, leaning into the table at the way he'd back off and away from her, her long fingers curving the cup back close to her.

"Why didn't Unser lock every one of them up?" Carreira shook his head into a loss of any acceptable explanation, his hand flaring off the faux leather and waving into the air as he snorted derision, "It would've created a power vacuum. Sucked this whole county into a shit field. Y'know what happens when you're ankle deep in shit?"

She lazed him a supposedly bored glance and shook her head, "You just buy new shoes, Luis."

"You get sucked farther down, Ally."

She let her jaw rise hard into the stark force he'd put into the usage of her first name, the novelty of it off his lips its own implication of his sincerity, "Are you warning me away from him or trying to cover my ass?"

"I have no idea. Because I don't know what the hell you're doing." He'd let his voice tone off again toward somewhat genial, mildly murmured as he wiped his palm nearly childishly and embarrassed against the back of the empty chair.

Her eyes softened as she let her head tip and she lifted the coffee again between them, using it to aim toward him gently, "You know I can't just tell you everything."

"You can imply enough to get me pointed in the right direction, though." Carriera offered into leaning his forearms along the chair ridging, his fall back humor brightening back into his eyes.

She just blinked and stalled the mug halfway to her lips, head jutting a fraction to the side, "Can I trust you, Luis?"

"You just let a murderer put his tongue down your throat in front of your entire squad and you're worried about whether or not you can trust your own deputy?" A near on laugh of amused hysteria cast off him as he pressed off the chair and headed for the door, "This ain't Mob City, boss. I'm the good guy."

"Are we? The good guys?" Ally asked after him, finally taking another swallow of acrid coffee, the drawn back and detracted way she was addressing him, with her shoulders back and a blocking between them, making it obvious that she wasn't necessarily going to just imply anything.

"Better than bad." He shrugged at her, a certainty that she was undeniably jealous of plain on his darker features.

"I just don't know if that's true."

* * *

><p>The heavy and stacked fall of the other man's boots was such a familiarly echoed phrase in his house that he let his shoulders lax as he wedged his own boot against the open refrigerator door, Tig's voice catching up on him from behind, "See, when you left Scoops, Hap was with ya."<p>

"And I sent him home." Chibs shrugged as he lifted a half carton of orange juice and shucked it into the sink for dumping without even checking the date, "Or off in search of… whatever it is he searches for."

Half the food in the fridge just had to go. Well, probably more than half. Probably, likely, all of it. He wasn't sure when the last time he'd put leftovers on that second shelf exactly was. But it was before he'd memorized exactly which drawers in her kitchen had the good knives and the bottle opener.

Tig let off a snort behind him and stepped into the long counter to his left, already rifling through the grocery bags that had been dumped across it, "Term 'rode hard and put away wet' mean anything to you?"

"Tiggy." He cast a shaded and shaming glance to the side, door still tucked open by the toe of his boot as he palmed against the top of it.

"I know." Trager left off in a sort of quieted and nearly apologetic softening, lifting the milk and handing it over blindly to be put away, "He's a very sweet man beneath all the batshit crazy."

The Scot lifted an aiming toward the other man while he shoved it onto the top shelf with a nodding, "And loyal t'you regardless, yeah?"

"What the hell are you doing?" The older man's eyes were grayed in the low and sallowed kitchen lighting, their usual brightness dulled down as he waved around the hushed kitchen, "AJ makin' you sleep alone tonight? You getting a little punishment?"

"She is not." Telford shot off tightly, swinging the door shut before he swung around, letting his back lay up against it as his arms looped over his chest, the dark of his eyes glossy as he chewed into his bottom lip. "Gettin' things set up."

"You're a nervous daddy." The box that Trager had been lifting dropped back into the bag and both his hands went flat falling to the countertop, his head cocked into a surprised turn of sweetened amusement.

"Shut it." Chibs bit his jaw tighter as he stared into the seemingly too small kitchen, shaking his head into the two loose chairs at the table he'd pushed aside to the southern wall just to avoid early sunlight on hungover mornings.

"You are." Tig murmured into a chipped amusement, his voice scattering quiet, "You're all jitters."

"She doesn't know me." He slagged off the frustrated pass of the words into the room, shaking his head slowly, "And she's gonna be pissed as hell. What do I tell her, Tig? I just explain that sorry, love, your da can't step sideways without landing in shit?"

A snorted noise came up between them as Tig turned his hip into the counter, a shrug lifting his shoulders as he made a quirked face and lifted the box again, "She's Fiona's. She's gonna bitch slap you regardless of clean sheets and… is this Gluten Free? Really? What if she's Pro-Gluten?"

He ignored the perched looked of brow raised amusement on the other man's features as he wiped both hands down his cheeks. "She's gonna hate me."

"And at least she'll be alive to do so, Chibs." The box dropped raggedly back into the bag once again and Chibs winced hard into jerking his jaw right, turning a sorrowed glance over the other man's clamped jaw and downed pale palms. "Right?"

"I know." He nodded a dipped and tamed acquiescence into the other man's rigid stillness, "Sorry, Tigger."

The lankier man's body jittered a little before he drew in a long and full expanse of oxygen, forcing it down deep into his swelled lungs with a long nod of acceptance but an otherwise culled silence. They matched an even rhythm of slow breathing before Chibs finally leaned his hand out to tug into the other man's shirt, fingers shifting into the thinly worn fabric and gripping there in silent stalwart leaning. Tig finally capped him a quick smile to the side, stretching a little closer into the touch.

"You going back to Ally's?" Trager asked as he caught against beads and squeezed along Telford's wrist, letting them loosen apart in a shifting that had them facing the same direction and mimicking in the way they stretched long legs forward, hips back leaning.

"She's comin' here." Chibs let his arms back up into his chest, curling his shoulders forward on a sluggish shrugging.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really." He banked an intentionally assertive tone into the other man's slight surprise, glance hashing darker as he took in the bewildered amusement Tig was aiming between them, "Why y'makin' that face?"

"She's coming here." Trager pointed toward the tiled floor, his fingers dabbling a little as he nodded in affirmation, "As in, this here?"

"It's clean." The younger man clipped off defensively, glancing around the kitchen to redouble what he already knew was true before his arms tightened farther into his chest.

Tig gave him a breathy laughing noise and a swift nod, head tipping forward, "It's fine. You have a nice place. It's just…"

"What? What's wrong with my house?" Chibs asked into a sudden concern that he'd so completely missed something that may have been so intricately important to the presence of a woman. He'd always managed just fine before and without his Vice President's assistance.

"Nothing." Tig demanded between them as he lifted both open palms in a move that was meant to bridge the honesty in his eyes, "It's your house."

"I do own it." The Scot muttered back as he shoved off the fridge, loosening his shoulders into the way he tagged off the cut and slung it along the back of one chair, fingers wiping off the worked leather as he angled a glance back toward the way his friend was smirking at him.

Tig wiped along the side of his mouth slowly, glancing about the kitchen before meeting back to defensively dark eyes, "When's the last time you had a woman in this house?"

"Don't start in." Chibs groaned out the words as he shunted past the other man, digging into the grocery bags as a mode of complete avoidance.

Because the answer was that he damn sure just didn't recall.

"You're gonna have a woman in your house." Trager teased the words quietly along Telford's shoulder, ribbing up into the shirt-sleeved shoulder of the younger man and laying a leaning up against the President. "And your daughter."

"Thank you for pointing it out. I hadn't realized." He slaked off on a wearied but mostly patient patterning of sarcasm.

"So I should go?" Tig nodded as he used the other man's stunted up frame to push off from, heading a few steps across the kitchen with his boots clattering an echo into the too quiet kitchen.

"Why?" Filip cast off with a shrugging, letting his voice lift after the other man as he waved toward the fridge, "I have steak."

Tig's paler face suddenly washed up a wreckage of a smile, eyes widening up, "Do you not wanna be alone with her in your own house, Chibby?"

"You're startin' to annoy me now." Chibs cast back as he angled over the bag and bit into the inside of his cheek a moment, unsure of where to really start, "I got one thread of patience left today."

"Fraying it?" the other man's voice was a far-too-pleased-with-himself almost song of humor.

He nodded once into it as his palms flacked flat to the counter and he pressed his weight forward, stretching his spine into a crackling that seemed to slake a margin of relaxation between his shoulder blades, "A bit."

Trager just banked a laugh between them and his boots carried the echoing sound closer to the door and farther from the Scot, "Yeah, I'm goin'."

"Gutless." Chibs taunted after him, turning his jaw onto his shoulder after the other man.

"Guilty." Tig called back, "You wrangle that woman on your own, brother. I ain't got the strength tonight."

* * *

><p>He was blatantly and happily surprised by the stillness of her, palming his beer and letting the stretch of his upper arm slant the living room doorframe as he let his eyes linger the long line her straightened up spine made from shoulders to ass to boot heels. She was back in her own comfortably tarnished cowboy boots and something about the worthy wear on them made him smile as he took up another swallow, rubbing the slickly cool bottle edge along his bottom lip thoughtfully.<p>

He liked her more in the long denim and stacked heels than he did in a uniform or even looking too close to something like a legitimate old lady. It reminded him that she was something definitively different from the other women around him, or even what she was when she was working. Something uniquely her own and quixotic and maybe more casually comfortable in her own skin and clothes and the blur of soothing soft luxury than the starkness of either other option.

Her head had slowly cocked into studying his shelving, the fingers of her right hand lifting to reach for something and stalling up before touching, as though she'd caught herself up in a swaying of jacked up respect, regardless of the fact he hadn't made a sound. Chibs smiled into her pausing, appreciating the second thought she'd unconsciously made, the deference to the touching that proved her more thoughtful than disregarding.

"I do read sometimes," he taunted sweetness into the quieted room to reward her patient pausing, "y'shouldn't seemed surprised."

"I'm not surprised, Telford." Her head shook her hair dark down the seamed line of her spine, the white of her tank top so delightfully and purely clean on her as her shoulder blades shifted, her fingers dipping to complete their movement as she pulled a book from the shelf. "I'm curious as to subject matter."

"Pornography and repair manuals." He tossed up playfully at the strong stretch of her before swilling back on the beer, letting his other hand catch into his pocket as she turned with a book curled up into her chest and a wry glance on angled features.

"This is Yeats."

"Yes, it is." He murmured. "Right next to Behan, he is."

"You are a romantic." Her voice had stressed a rising surprise between them, the sharpness of her usually stolid features seeming to soften on a smirk.

"Y'think Behan's a romantic?" He grinned at her with a shake of his head, "You would, Lieutenant."

"The calendar is two months behind." She blinked at him, the book still clutched into her chest by bare but muscle tensed arms and her head angled though her eyes hadn't moved from his. "You cleaned before I got here because it smells like pine pitch in here. You have a deplorable habit of not putting pictures in actual frames and a bottle opener actually attached to the wall. As though you just don't have the energy to keep opening a drawer."

He panned her a glare that was still more patient than she'd expected so she inhaled deeply into a forward stepping, smiling into the way he matched the movement closer to her by pushing off the wall.

"And the furniture is more tasteful than I'd expected. You pick it out yourself, or did you have help?" She taunted at him, letting her voice rag a little toward churlish.

Chibs leaned the mostly empty beer to the coffee table, setting it beside the barely used coaster just to annoy her watching, "Funny, Lieutenant."

"And you're nervous that I'm in your space." She raised her head back into the way he palmed her close, his hands so broadly stretched and intentionally spanning on her waist, "Because, somehow, in your head, it sets a precedent. One that you're just not sure you're comfortable with yet."

"Y'done?" he asked cockily into studying the way the top of the book just barely cut some of his view of her cleavage and down.

"Not even close, Scotty." She shook her head so assuredly that he thought he may as well have signed the surrender and lifted the sword just by the turning of her jaw, "The pictures you do have framed get the most attention, because even if you did dust in here, you didn't wipe the fingerprints off the glass. Like the one of Tara and Thomas."

"Ally."

"Should I make bets about the kitchen? Gloves are on the table, cut's on the chair, dishes are still damp, fridge is full because you're nervous about your daughter coming and the garbage is… empty." She nodded tightly into her assertion, "You make sure that garbage is empty because you never know how long you're gonna be gone and you don't want - "

His hands jacked her tight up into him and the poetry that broached between them was nothing in comparison to the way her eyes lit up fired in the face of his tightening, "The observant detective thing is sorta cute sometimes but now you're just gettin' annoying."

"You wear your boots in the living room and the kitchen but not in the bedroom." She guessed into the assumption quietly, dropping a glance along the more worn trackings in the carpet before looking back up, "Yes? I bet that's the softest room in this entire house."

"Didn't do this t'you. Didn't categorize your life according to belongings." He squinted over her, scraping his teeth along his bottom lip after the accusation.

"You categorize your life according to your belongings, Telford."

Chibs snorted hard and defensively between them. "I do not."

"Bike, patch," Her smile preceded the lay of her lips softly and incrementally along the wired tight line of his jaw and he felt his throat swallow on its own in response, "me."

"Maybe marginally so." He admitted the whispering so quietly so that she couldn't celebrate all that much in being right.

"Liquor cabinet's in the living room and not the kitchen?" The drawing back of her head tilted her back into humor, "You see no reason to hide the fact you like your drink and other comforts close at hand. You're not ashamed of being a bit of a hedonist."

"One drink's too many for me. Thousand's not enough." Chibs murmured on her with a grin he hadn't meant to make.

And she matched it with a thinned glance, "That wasn't Yeats."

"Behan. Sort of." He winked at her, plying the book from her fingers and drawing it from blocking them up any farther, letting it sway to their sides as he leaned his mouth along hers and welcomed the slide of her tongue against his.

She sometimes surprised him with the way she turned his own advances round on him.

Like a mirror on his wanting, something that reflected heat and gave him back a doubled helping of his own basic burning.

He couldn't help but smile into the fact she most often kissed him back like vengeance was on her mind and forgiveness in her mouth.

"Y'haven't even gotten to my music yet."

Ally arched him a dry smile, letting her nose wrinkle up slightly into the way she shook her head aside toward glancing over the stereo and back to him, "Please, don't tell me there are showtunes involved. It would completely ruin the forensic profile I have going in my head."

"You've been working that profile since before we met, Lieutenant." He let his whisper linger quieter, the wedge of near distrust broaching between them before he smiled it away with a nearly forlorn shake of the head, "Haven't you?"

"You hid the actual porn." She retorted, keeping the playfulness crowded between them to block up his near on tip toward frustration, "Didn't you?"

"Goddamn right I did." The grin was the best of all possible results she could have hoped for and she appreciated the fact he widened it between them.

Ally slicked her tongue along her lips, head cocked, "I bet I can find it."

"You hungry, darlin'?" His face had so surprisingly softened and warmed into a smiling gentleness, the searching he made over her making her shoulders rise into lagged lay of breathing at the change of his tone.

It wasn't his usual gaited taunting and it was nothing of distrust. It wasn't even lust.

It was concern and care and all the things she was just not supposed to find in a man with hands more bloodied than a surging stigmata.

She nodded a flushed surprise into the terrifically unguarded gentleness of him. "A little."

He nodded her his knowing, gave it between them as though he'd completely figured her out without the use of profiles or studying or anything besides the watching of his darker eyes, "Back porch has reading chairs and a grill that's probably about ready. All warmed up."

"You clean that too?" She ribbed at him on a surrendering smile.

"Bottle of merlot out there too." Chibs tipped back into her, catching the way her jaw lifted to match his in angling, "Maybe you can have it if y'stop bein' such a little wiseass."

"Devious." She followed after him as he turned with a giddied teasing, her fingers tucking into his belt so that she could lag on the way he was avoiding her taunting. "Gonna get me drunk and take advantage of me, President?"

"Y'just completely take the challenge outta things sometimes, woman." He slagged a slightly whining tone into his turning, laying a sweet brown of his glance over her before his lips tinted a teasing smile between them, "It's no fun."

She traded his lathed teasing for a jaded glance and a sudden breathing fight of a tone, one that went daring toward an unavoidable edge, "You want fun, Telford? You just earned the challenge."

"Good." He lifted the book pointedly back into her on a grazing grin, intentionally lazing a glance down the way her shirt curved on her before he left her to grasp the book back into her chest, "Now keep your hands t'yourself, Sheriff"

Ally rolled her eyes into the way he batted her hand off from fidgeting his back pocket, her shoulders dumping lower, "Boring, Scotty."


	44. Chapter 44

She couldn't help the pleased smile she met him with as he angled a freshly filled glass down toward her, his hand long and curved carefully around the rim of the thin glass. Her eyes tipped the pale of his wrist where his beads had slipped lower on the bridge of his hand, grazing the tattoo as she took the wine from him and let her head roll back into the wooden framing of the lounge chair. Her boots were clipped up, heels between slats and the book open into the up drawn stretch of her thighs, and she watched the way he just gave her a shied smirk before swallowing against another bottle.

Ally turned the other hand out, breathing in the smoked smell of the grill as she pressed her palm flat into his side, drawing warm into her chilled fingers by the spread of denim and the waved heat that came off him. The simplistic movement drew his glance back down, a smile still cradling across his lips and broadening his scars as he looked over her.

"Learnin' anything?" he asked quietly, keeping still into the way she shrugged as she let her fingers lag against his wallet chain and hang loose and limp against it as her eyes cast over the work shirt he had tugged over his shoulders.

"Yeats makes me sleepy." She teased at him, tugging on the chain.

"Wine makes y'sleepy, Lieutenant." He corrected as his glance turned back over the grill, watching it. "You're later than I expected. Problems?"

"Paperwork." Her fingers skidded off the chain and she intentionally stroked against his ass, smirking into the way he shot a glance down over her as he swallowed from the bottle again.

"What'd I say?" he stepped from her stroking fingers and toward the open grill, grinning into the annoyed noise she made. "Hands t'yourself, Althea. Y've got a real listening problem."

"I've got a real wanting problem." She corrected as she shut the book, sipping down the deep red and letting her eyes graze him.

He gave her a tipped shrugging and a gift of a grin as he set the bottle to the raised side of the grill and flipped the steaks lazily, "Same."

"Feels like you're being nice to me because I'm not gonna see you every night." She aimed softly after him, letting her eyes ride the line of him and enjoying the way the familiar curve of his ass rose into slimmer hips than expected.

Carreira had been too damn on the nose. Thirsty may have been too apt a description.

Because his continued attention to where she had her hands had her wanting to slide them over him for a long while.

"I am nice, Althea." He cast over the grill, shifting the steaks even though he didn't necessarily need to do so.

"You know what I mean."

"Aye." He agreed into a shaded softness. "Wanna get plates?"

"I'm allowed in the kitchen by myself?" she waved the glass toward the door in teasing.

"You can search the house whenever y'like, Lieutenant." He waved back toward it idly, taking another swallow off the bottle. "But I'm hungry. Top shelf. Second from the sink."

* * *

><p>"It's nothin' personal." He hushed the apologetic murmuring into the side of her head, liking the curled up curve of the way she was sideways seated into him in the large chair, her shoulder stalled up into the center of his chest as she sipped on the last of the wine.<p>

"I know. I'm not taking it personally." She shook off as she flipped to the next page, the glass lifted away as she rubbed under a word and lifted her head into questioning.

"Sidhe." He pronounced the long and hushed lean of the word, all rushed and breathy vowel sounding.

"Hence banshee." She murmured as her fingers struck and stroked down the page.

"Bean sidhe, cu sidhe, sluagh sidhe, my Leanan Sidhe." He wiped her hair back off the side of her face, watching the coloring of her eyes tint as the sun gave up waiting on the both of them. "Don't really know my own daughter, Althea."

"You will." She lifted her head into the sudden admittance of concern that had tinted his tone quieter, lifting the glass to his lips playfully so that he finished the last strong swallow at her urging, "Fairly soon. If she's anything like you I highly doubt she's shy about who she is."

"She was shy." He slaked his tongue across his lips, taking the glass from her fingers and slanting it to the porch floor slowly. "A bit. Not as much now. She's got a mouth on her, for sure."

"Gets a little tetchy with daddy, huh?" She grinned and nodded into the shamelessly proud glance he gave her in response. "Thought so."

"Gettin' her away from Jimmy did more than I'd hoped for her." He murmured as he twined her hair back again, fighting the sudden urge to ride his fingers up into its darkness and draw her head into so sharp an angle she couldn't keep him from burying his mouth down her throat.

She looked at him like she knew exactly how dark he was inside, "Did you kill him, Filip?"

His eyes met hers in a pure lift, the darkness in them unchanged by the way she was watching his shifting, "Y'know I can't answer you that, Ally."

"Part of me doesn't want you to tell me." She tightened into leaning her shoulder closer, looking away from the intense honesty of the way he was watching her.

"I know."

Her hands shunted the book closed on a sudden restlessness, shifting her hips in his lap in a way that had him caging along her back. "Part of me hopes you murdered him bloody."

"Know that too." He acknowledged into a mingling of sadness and proud humor, the sound of it twisted through his throat by the adversity of the disparate emotions.

The turn of her jaw onto her shoulder seemed like such a beautifully natural taunting of perfection, the way her shoulder lifted just pert enough to make her seem so legitimately adorable in her thin lipped smiling, "Part of me is extremely turned on by this conversation."

Chibs just grinned into a breathy chuckle, letting his head bank back into the chair as he pinched against her hip and exhaled as much from his lungs as he could, "You're wicked, Althea."

That lift of her shoulder faltered some as she let her glance dip along his lips and rise again with a worry that discolored the brightness of her eyes, "What if I'm the one that can't sleep, huh? What if it's my turn?"

He made an argumentative noise in his throat, shifting the book from her lap and letting it lay aside to the floor with a thumping that preceded his hands curling up and wide on her ribs. The force of his movement drew her shifting and he watched the turning of her body and the arching rise of her spine as she settled her knees to his side, letting her body lean into the pass of his chest so that her weight was balanced warmly into him. She let herself lean so easily into his physical presence and he was equal parts surprised and swayed by the movement, dropping his head farther back so he could lift a glance over her fidgeted watching, smiling into the way she was skirting her tongue along her bottom lip.

"Not sayin' I won't be seeing you." His voice had wandered even softer than earlier, tipped farther toward affection than she thought was likely from him, "You're not getting away that easily. Just not throwin' it in her face first thing."

The brightness that flared up in her eyes timed the same as the parting then pressing of her thin lips, a definitive questioning on her face before she marginally shook her head and shrugged, "I wasn't implying - "

"You're gonna meet her whether y'want to or not, Ally." He threaded breathy laughter into the words, nodding as both his hands drove up under her shirt, letting the tips of his fingers rivet up the lines of her ribs as his wrists bunched the fabric. "You face that fact right now. Get right with it. It's happening."

"So demanding." She playfully pouted into wiping a finger along his forehead.

"So skittish." Chibs countered as he dug his fingers into a slight force and jerked her closer into leaning over him.

A smile lit and lifted her lips as his hands curved up over her breasts, palms closing as she blew her breath past her lips, "We doing this right here?"

"You're askin' like you have a problem with public indecency." He let his face bury into the leeching warmth of white cotton, sinking into the smell of comfort and buttery lotion and unrestricted proximity, "And it's not even all that public."

Ally let her hand curve around his neck, keeping him lined into the center of her chest as his thumbs nubbed past her hardened nipples through the fabric of her bra, "I'm asking because I'm cold."

"And you wanna see the bedroom." His beard scruffed fabric as he lifted an arched glance and a curt tone, "Don't play at bein' coy."

"I really am cold." She shrugged closer into him, shoulders tightened up as she tucked into the heat of him and skidded harder down into his lap, causing a jerk in his waist as both her palms curled between them and down.

"Not entirely, you're not." He answered the shift of her hands with the downward swipe of his own, catching against her wrists and wrapping them into one hand while the other wended between her legs and brushed against denim.

"No." She tugged against the way he was pinning on her, her eyes thinning quickly accusatorily, "Watch your hands, Telford. Keep 'em to yourself."

He just grinned into her tightened up leaning, "Y'think I can't - "

"You just keep them to yourself." She was still wrangling her wrists against the sure pure strength of his fingers and he sat his back up straight to lock their hands between them, his head lifted up to rise his cheek into her jaw.

Her breath was dry wine warm and heating along his temple and he didn't think he wanted his hands anywhere but exactly where they were.

"We're at a stalemate, my love." He raised the whisper into her down angled jaw, tinting the whisper amused even as she grunted annoyance at him.

"Far from it." Ally retorted into a shifting of her right wrist, a surprised jolt on her entire frame when both his hands caught against her wrists cleanly again and wound them up along her back. The broad stretch of stronger shoulders lifted even higher into her as he braced her clenched fists into her lower back.

"Don't really wanna fight you tonight, Althea." He'd meant to tease on her but a weary slinging of aching filled his voice, his face wiping down along her shoulder so his forehead could rest along the strong lift of it.

"You wanted a challenge." She murmured into his temple, tone cautious into his sudden stillness.

The rush of his sighed hot breath slaked moist heat over her bare skin, "And every inch of you is one."

"I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that." She jerked playfully against his gripped fingers, watching the way it lifted his attention back to her. "Because you're just as - "

"Stop." He shook his head with an affectionate leaning, lifting his jaw into smirking as he breathed a laugh through his nose. "Just stop, Ally. I don't wanna fight with you."

Confusion turned her eyes a golden shade, "You and I can never just act as though we're normal, Telford. Remember?"

He looked shamefully saddened by the reminder, shaking his head away as he bit down on the back of his jaw, "We could if you'd just… stop."

"Stop being myself?" Her shoulders swayed back and away from his leaning, forcing him to hold her balance and trusting into the shifting even as she glared on him, "You get awfully pissy when I imply you should stop being who you are, President."

"Stop fightin' the fact you're in love with a murdering son of a bitch." He cut up into her, mouth catching hers so quickly and briefly that she blinked into the way he watched the reaction crash her face slack, "And I'll stop pretending that the way you act like a haughty bitch in a uniform doesn't turn me on like a goddamn light switch."

"You really do." Her surprised blinking made her face seem young and pale, "Don't you?"

Chibs turned his head marginally, casting a sidelong glance at her as he tightened his fingers on the strong flexing turns of her wrists, "Do what?"

"You really do have feelings for me." She murmured as she studied his face, nothing so much as smug on her features. More a blatant and brightened surprise.

"And I've proven it more than should be necessary, Althea." He raised into her cheek, his voice curbing onto a hushed whisper that bent toward derogatory, "Don't wanna fight you tonight, darlin'."

Ally let her head down into the directness of his response, her hair laying and leaning forward and brushing them both as she waited out the shifting of his fingers wiring tighter on her wrists, "You don't have to."

"I'm gettin' tired of provin' it."

"I get it." She nodded into his low laying frustration.

"Good." He turned his kiss along her cheek like an instantaneous forgiveness, something he seemed primarily incapable of at any other moment, "Now keep your hands t'yourself."

She shifted her hands and felt his grip tamp tighter in response, her head turning to catch a way brown eyes had grazed from dissatisfaction to mischief. "You just said - "

"Stop fighting me." He interrupted with a clean and quick nod.

She swallowed hard into the curled turn of his palms bracing her wrists, watching the complete stillness of his glance as he held hers. "Okay."

"You really are chilled up." He smiled as he wiped his stubbled jaw line from her shoulder to the arching curve toward her upper arm, hips shifting up under her to draw her into moving. "C'mon."

She leaned back into the way he was still holding her hands captive and claimed up behind her as he shifted forward in the chair, letting her stand so that he could wipe his face lazily against the fabric of her shirt. "I get to see the bedroom?"

A snort of laughter heated damp through cotton, "We may get there yet, Lieutenant."

* * *

><p>He didn't realize how much she'd really been pulling her strength on his holding, keeping lax into his grip just out of an agreement of whatever game they were playing while he walked her backwards with slow and slaking kisses. Because he hadn't even been fully aware of the rules before she'd broken them, snapped up between them by the slamming jerk of both her wrists breaking downward against his thumb as she'd slung around and slacked her back up into stalling his chest. The chilled open spread of her back suddenly so tightly pressed into his shirt as his face had landed into the heat of her hair.<p>

And he knew she wasn't playing any sort of game anymore - she'd broadened her shoulders back into the stretch of him in such a hard stillness that he'd pressed motionless in a surprised confusion.

She had to have noticed something off and odd a fractional moment before it'd sunken into his addled up and lust laden head. Because she palmed down into his cut and under to find the holster a cutting and caught up moment before he could curl her still.

"Ally." He breathed her name softly along her ear, stroking up along the tautly lifted and tensed muscle of the back of her arm, feeling her tense against the touch as he closed a full palm along her wrist. "Put it down."

And Gaige watched the movement from across the table with an edged smile that was supposed to tally into humorous but really just went damning, "Agile, ain't she?"

"Even I'm impressed." Chibs hushed into the way he closed tighter around her wrist from behind, leaning her hip first into the table as his other hand braced the rioting of her clenched muscles.

"Shut up." The blade in her hand seemed so oddly formed and unfitting, like it had been made for someone so drastically different from her as she tipped the keened edge of it for the doorway, "And get out."

"Darlin'," He couldn't help but smile into how full his lungs went with an animalistic pride, groaning into heady appreciation as he finally forced a wedging down into her arm and toward the table. "put it down for me. C'mon."

"I'm gonna kill him." She shied to the side and the softness of her hair laced with the tint of wine off her breath made him smile farther.

He lifted a glance to the way Gaige was still seated lazily at the table. "I think she really means it, friend."

"Filip - "

"You're not using it on anyone tonight, mo ghràidh." He couldn't curb the proud amusement from his voice, regardless of how sharded up and sharp she seemed to be trapped up into his chest. "Drop it."

A disgusted noise of aggravation lifted off her lungs as she finally flared her fingers loose, the knife dropped clattering to the table as she tried to slide her wrist from his hold again. This time he let her go, his hand dropping to flatly cover the blade on the table as he cocked a half grinning glance toward the other man. There was a brow arching glance on the other man's face, his features pale but attentive as he watched warily between the both of them. The both of them followed the shift of her as she shunted Telford's chest off from leaning against her spine and shoulders, her body suddenly seeming long and lithe and stronger than expected as she stalked toward the counter and backed her hips up against it.

He caught the jacked rise and fall of her chest, jaw pent furiously tight as she glared the Irishman down like a misbehaving child. "Y'gonna behave?"

Ally's eyes slid on him slowly, derisively dark and near on malicious before she exhaled through her nose and swallowed, "Sure."

Chibs exhaled slowly on a shake of his head. "Althea."

"I promise." She mugged at him with a forced and intentionally faked smile, letting her hands break back against the edge of his counter in a way that spread every muscle that supported and shored her upper body.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice, Filip?" the murmuring Gaige teased quietly up between them turned both their glances his way as he let a palm tap flat against the table, a shrug lifting his shoulders as he breathed out a laugh, "That I wouldn't know? Where is she?"

"Y'told me to bring her home, boss." He made a noise against his teeth before shrugging into a smile that carried more disgust than humor, the last word accented hard with sarcasm. "That's just what I'm doin'."

"Y'think that makes her safer?"

"I am so goddamn sick of hearing your pissy little threats, Cal." Ally's voice thwacked so hard in the other man's direction that the both of them sharpened her glances and she had to shake her head away from to ignore how cutting they were. "Man up or just fucking go home. I was busy."

"I could tell." He chipped back in her direction, a bit of near on affectionate humor raking over his sweetly accented tone. "I'm a little jealous."

"Eat a dick." She shunted back tightly between them.

"To do list?" His grin went wide into asking.

"Both of ya." Chibs raised his palm off the knife, gripping the handle up while the other hand shifted leather so he could sheath it. "Shut the hell up."

"Christ," Gaige pressed slowly up from the table, both hands flat pressed to the top of it in his shifting as he angled a glance between the both of them and grinned, "she's worse than the last woman threatened to stab me."

"No doubt." Chibs agreed as he passed a hand smoothing against leather, keeping his glance keened between the two of them.

"Course, it was your sister." The Irishman's steps were intentionally slow as he passed between them, his hands raised defensively as he smirked his steps past Ally's darkened watching, his shoes hushing the tiled floor.

"I highly doubt she was the last." Telford turned his hips into leaning against the table, forcing his frame relaxed as his arms crossed against his chest, keeping her toned tightness in his peripheral as he matched Gaige's brighter glance.

The younger man breathed out his cagey laughter, "Eh, you're probably right. Think it's smart t'have Fiona's blood in the same house as this one? Maybe I don't even need to be involved for it to break you."

"Think it's smart to threaten the man we'd both kill for?" Ally's voice tipped gently warm and sweetened over the kitchen, intentionally cradled softly and seemingly lushly eerie in its velvet.

"Point made, Althea." Gaige smiled wide before he'd even turned her his glancing, his eyes suddenly brightened up in the yellowed kitchen lighting, "Well done, darling girl."

Her brow arched into the coddling term, "Get the hell out."

"Think she means it." Chibs repeated into a gentled threatening of his own, his body a rigid line regardless of his leaning.

Cal just gave them a nodding as he angled his steps back away from them, Telford pressing off the table to follow and assure his retreat, "So you've said, friend."


	45. Chapter 45

"You've absolutely no sense in that head." He clipped her up closer with tightening palms that wrapped her jaw and spread over her cheeks, his familiarly calloused hands farther chilled than they'd been not half an hour earlier. "What the hell'd you think you were doin'?"

There was always a subtle difference between his force of will and force of worry.

And the disparity was always so very obvious in his hands and the way they curled her up closer rather than pressing his intentions.

Ally let the sway of him curve her spine back by the slant of his shoulders, her head stalled from shaking as his fingers spread flat, "I was - "

"No." his eyes seemed softer than she'd expected from the brashed up rasping of his voice as he leaned over her, dragging her farther up into how cold his entire body felt against her, "You'll do nothin', Althea."

"Filip - "

"He will kill you." She had no doubt that he didn't mean for her to see any sort of desperation, but felt herself sink into the fact that the paleness of him was bred of worry, a fear she could damn near scent in the closeness of him, "He'll make it bloody and he'll make it sick."

Ally shook her head even while his fingers tightened on her, closing her closer, "I'm a big girl, Scotty."

"No." He argued into blinking his eyes shut against her searching, "He will - "

"Get off me." Ally exhaled frustration into shoving him back, full palms to strong shoulders as she pulled her face out of his touch, "Hands to yourself."

"Ally."

"No." She argued his tone just as much as she raked his fingers back off from their reaching, forcing him into his own space, "You don't get to do this. You don't get to - "

"Do what?" Chibs lifted the question into her with a tone obviously more accusing than soft.

She watched him turn his shoulder to her, the shake of his head and the disregard in his body kicking up something hot in her lungs, "You're not the President of me, Telford. You don't tell me what to do. I want that piece of shit - "

"He will murder you, Althea." The pointed aiming of his hand in her direction while keeping his head turned away from her just managed to piss her off all the more, as though he was chastising an unruly child, "And leave you at my fuckin' feet. He is not weak. He's not - "

"I want him dead." She slapped at his fingers in an attempt to shove his hand away that failed as he just lifted them again.

"And I need you alive." His head turned her way again in his fervor, his accent dulled into the thrum of his words, "Don't you bait him."

"Let me take care of you, Filip." It was so close to a begging that he could tell she didn't want to have to say it.

She could tell the very idea of it made him wince worry, "You have no idea what you're asking for."

Ally shook her head slowly, letting her body lax, "You keep saying that. It's bullshit. And you know it."

The fact he reached for her again had her tightening right back up, "Ally - "

"Don't you touch me." Her palm flat stopped his reaching as her voice slung lower and quieter, "Don't you dare, you hypocritical son of a bitch. You love me."

"Yes." The loving of her was an all out head-to-heart pub brawl and he was feeling punch drunk on it, voice slapping hard between them, "Damn it, I do."

Every inch of her swayed and he thought maybe, if she could just hold onto a moment of maybes… Maybe she'd just accept it and let everything go.

Of course she couldn't - couldn't just keep the colored fire in her eyes without brandishing it between them, "Then let me - "

"No." His voice gravelled more dusted honest than she'd expected, more aching than arching, "I do, Ally. That's why I want you outta this."

"No." He'd known from the start how stubborn she was and he very well knew that he shouldn't be the least surprised that she'd ever and always stay that way. "I'm in it."

"You're not." The argument seemed almost flippant, curt and so simply made.

It had her shoulders lifted and her head shifting back and forth, "You don't tell me what to do."

"I do in this." The way he was watching her was nearly derogatory, like an underestimation of how serious she was. "Don't you test me, Sheriff. You know I'll win. I always do."

He wasn't underestimating a thing - and he saw rage in the rise of her widened eyes, the crackling beauty of it wildfire strong and so broad between them he wondered how much of them it could engulf before she snapped. He knew the twitch of nerves on her muscles and he saw the slap rise in her strong palm, caught into it before she could land it, curling into the same tight flex he'd been linked around earlier. His palm brought her arm into a cradled jerk along his chest and collarbone, drawing them up smack together and unflinching as she exhaled the unspent anger through her nose.

"I will not fight you tonight, mo ghràidh."

"Because you damn well know you're wrong." The slow curling of her flat out fingers to a fist had his brief attention before he met back to her mutiny, "Let go or you'll feel my knee from your balls to your throat, Telford."

"Threats?" the smile curling his lips up was intentionally malicious and taunting, patience lashed and scrapped between them.

"Sure." Ally nodded once, her hips angling and his brow lifting into the locked up way she'd shifted her weight to her left leg. "But I don't make empty ones."

The gleaming dark to glaring that conquered his features actually rattled her at first and she felt a slick run of legitimate fear down the slide of her spine for a moment. Burnt up bile brought bitterness into her throat as she flexed her fingers back out straight. She placed a bet she wasn't sure she could cash in on, bending her knuckles into laying flat along his cheek - felt herself slag a little into the way his eyes flinched at the touch and her shoulders dropped marginally. And it was only a lagged moment before he recovered against the withdrawn arching of her, his loose arm catching against the way she was drawing back as he turned a barely perceptible shake of the head toward her.

"Don't." he argued with an uncensored frustration that had a tinting of heat as he blinked a glance over her mouth, "Don't fight me."

"You like what I am, Telford." She explained the quietness between them, "I saw your face. You were - "

"Doesn't matter." The admission was wincing, "You're sexy as hell when you're strong, for sure. But it brings y'too close."

"I am not helpless."

She was more than correct.

She was far from helpless.

"No, you're not." Chibs admitted softly.

She was sometimes too close to being helpful in a place she just shouldn't be.

She so often slapped at things like Gemma had. And just as often stood with broad shoulders for carrying, same as Tara.

"You have to let me help you." She leaned into the way he seemed so close to letting her match up against him, "And you need to let go."

"Why?" the softness of his tone was tired and farther innocent than she'd expected.

So she curbed her tone soft as well, "Because I told you to, goddamn it. Let me go."

Chibs just shook his head back and forth, finally meeting her eyes with some sort of unexplained resignation in their color, "No. I won't."

"I won't slap you." Ally plied between them, widening her eyes to try and convince him into loosening his hold.

"That's a dirty little falsehood, Lieutenant." He tightened back between them, "Don't lie to me. Can smell it on you. Just like when you're wantin'. I can smell that on you too."

Smelled like sugar and smoke that was sweet rather than acrid.

She wasn't sure when the last time he'd brought her skin so tingling was, her head turned just enough that she could see the dimpling of his impish smile. The depth of it drew her head a margin closer to his.

"What is it you want?" he lifted his jaw up, his eyes slimming into the way she wiped her knuckles into his opposite cheek in retaliation for his hazy teasing. "Tell me, Althea."

"Chibs." Her knuckles were pressing the line of one scar like she had an unspoken ability to take it from him for awhile, "Filip."

"I mean - "

"That's exactly what I mean." She broke quietly into his interruption, letting her lungs relax into the way he'd managed to curl the other arm comforting along her waist, "All of it. Patch, President, bikes and guns and ice cream and - "

"Pussy." He had the uncanny ability to make dirty talk seem near on sweet and abrasive at once. It trended toward making her thighs ache and her spine arch more often than she'd wanted.

"I'm trying to quit, thanks." She panned him a derisive glance, ignoring his taunt, "No, I don't - "

"I do." He just full on grinned and she hated that she found him so enticing when he broke out the charm.

"I know you do." She was damn downright adorable when she smirkingly rolled her eyes at him, the strength of her jaw lifting a bend more amused than angry. "I'm deciding whether you deserve it."

"I do." He spoke like he was more than sure in his assertion, "I promise, I do, darlin'. I've been kind. Even behaved m'self. Unlike some people in this room."

And she was shaking her head at him like he was just a cheeky little thing she couldn't seem to wave off and he just couldn't seem to lean away from the way it softened the angles of her face, "Let go of me, Scotty."

"I won't." He let his tongue linger along his bottom lip, grazing his voice down a register to keep her drawn up close in listening, "Not lettin' you go, Wildfire."

"Stop it." She damn near stamped her foot against the floor, snorting against fully laughing into the smiling in his eyes.

She loosened long and full into his holding and that's when he knew he had her semi tamed. But he didn't trust her turning from feral, so he didn't let go.

"You're so full of shit, Telford." The length of her hair seemed twining as she shook her head and let her lips get slicked by her quick tongue, "Wine and Yeats and death threats and - "

"Tame in comparison to some dates." He chipped into lifting his mouth near hers, intentionally keeping their lips just apart, "Least I didn't shoot ya."

Her knee took a rise at such a rapid rate that regardless of his guarding she still clipped into him enough to draw a sharp grunting off his lungs. His exhalation shafted hard off his lips as he pushed back from the way she'd jammed her knee into his groin. She'd just barely caught on the half erection she'd taunted off him with pretty eyes and too strong a will to ignore. And the smirk that lived on her lips was just wild enough to draw him back into the fight.

"Dirty play, Althea." He made the words low in his throat, trapped somewhere between annoyance and amusement.

"I'm sorry." She just shrugged playfully, "What was it you wanted again?"

* * *

><p>He'd no doubt that telling her he didn't plan to fight had her all searing hands and teeth and nails digging on him, welting scratches across his ass and back and deep on the curves of his shoulders. And when he'd finally grunted forceful impatience into the way she was wilding on him, she'd stopped still. Still enough he could slap her hands flat to his harder mattress with a glare that sent her motionless, head lifted over hers in guarded watching. That's when she smiled so smugly that he couldn't help but laugh breathless into her sheer victory, her knees ridging his hips as she slacked her spine flat in his bed. He closed his fingers between hers and watched the softening of her jaw as she breathed slowly, slower than he expected.<p>

"You're too damn much sometimes." He accused of her.

"You can handle it, Scotty." The shrugging she was giving him was only half made due to the locked position of her arms, "That's why Teller gave you the patch, right? Instead of one of the other boys? Because you can handle all the 'too much'?"

"Watch yourself, Althea."

"That's why he sent you after me, right?" Ally asked into his pressing, "Because he knew he could get you close but keep you far enough away."

"You aimin' for a rough fucking?" He was already jerking her up before she could give him an answer, drawing her into him so that he could turn her into his chest and brush her forward, "Because that's all you're gonna get if you keep it up."

"Thought I'd already proven that I hit exactly what I aim for, Telford."

One pressing finger drew down the line of her spine in a tease that had her verging on a shiver, "Smug little wench, aren't ya?"

She just dug a smile down toward her shoulder, letting him see the spread of it as she let her hips relax into the hold of his hands.

"On your knees, Lieutenant." He'd leaned his whisper along her back and caught into her reaching, slowly placing her hands back down and forward before wiping along the space between her flexed shoulder blades, "Thought I told you earlier to keep your hands to yourself. Down."

"Christ." She wiped the wash of her hair off her face, piecing her fingers into it and digging deep as she turned her cheek to the pillow, "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm not goin' anywhere." Chibs told her dryly, keeping his tone neutral and quiet as he ran full palms from hips to thighs to everywhere he could reach. "And neither are you. Clear?"

Ally nodded her hand deeper into her hair, a noise tipping off her unintentionally as he finally raked his fingers up the back of one thigh and between her legs, "Crystal."

"Breathe, darlin'. Keep breathing" He unintentionally smiled into the sound she made when he went stroking against her clit, fingers already slicked, "Christ. How long y'been like this?"

She hummed approval into the pillow, voice murmuring bemused, "For always."

He chuckled into the apt response and withdrew his finger slowly, the other palm flat spread on her lower back and pressing, "Meant this wet."

"Hours. Days." Her shoulders seemed to curl a little as she rubbed her cheek harder into a pillow that smelled completely of just him, leaning into his slow touching, "Weeks."

"Should probably take care of ya then, huh?" He laid a wiping kiss on her spine, letting his tongue taste against sweated skin, "Maybe I will."

She sounded awfully pleased with herself in her moaning, face burying into his pillow as he drove his finger back into her, his shifting slow and purposeful "You're not gonna make this easy are you, Telford?"

"Y'get what you aim for, Althea."

* * *

><p>She hadn't noticed him at first, just bracketed away the peripheral image of someone slung onto the bench outside of the station. But then he'd shifted his shoes against the sidewalk at the sight of her, and she was stalled by the complete familiarity of him. There were very few moments in between the rest of life wherein she forgot the make and model of Sean Caffee.<p>

"Looking tired, Althie. Maybe you should be getting more rest." He wagged the styro coffee cup back and forth between his knees, looking broader and sturdier than he had the last time she'd seen him bent forward on a bench. "Or Vitamin C."

"You weren't supposed to be in until tomorrow." Not that she would have been any more prepared to deal with him had another twenty four hours passed, but it scraped on her to see him earlier than expected.

The smile he lifted into the sunshine made him seem closer to what she'd known before it dropped away, a little more gray scattered through the dark of his cropped hair than she recalled, "Reno's not far. I took a drive. Not happy to see me?"

"I'm always pleasantly surprised to see that you're still breathing." Ally finished the final steps toward him, lifting herself up into the sidewalk with the bridge of a boot.

"Good news for me." There was a lagging laughter in his voice as he finished the coffee, the long sleeved shirt and jeans he was wearing seeming too casually normal.

"It's not a kindness." She shook her head over him, stepping back into an intentional distance as he stood into his full height, raising himself over her by a few inches, "You getting dead would just be a terrible waste of my resources. Let's go."

"Althie - "

"Don't call me that." She rasped it off as she motioned toward the steps, "Inside."

"You do look good, though. Always so well maintained. Clean fuckin' lines. Always what you were best at, remember?" His broad palm lifted and she watched the movement as he smirked into tapping at the side of his nose, "Keepin' clean lines."

"Look at me." She ignored the intimation and caught up into his jaw with bracing fingers, lifting his eyes into the sunlight as she looked over a face that had aged too far from what she remembered, "Right here, Sean. Look at me."

"Clean as a whistle, baby." He blinked greened eyes over her, "Been more sober than not lately."

Ally wiped her fingers off his stubbled face as she shook her head, "I find that extremely hard to believe."

"Believe it, Deputy." His voice had aged along with his eyes and the lines of his face, making him seem more sad but maybe softer – and she didn't trust in it for a moment, "Sobriety's been a sorta… zen-like thing. World's weird on its own, huh?"

The incorrect rank seemed nominal in the face of the way he was speaking to her.

Like he had every right in the world to be so simply personal in his tone and turning.

"Lieutenant." She corrected as she wiped her glasses back into her hair, letting him see her eyes and forcing herself relaxed in the studying way he watched them.

"A promotion?" He was smiling again, but it was made like a flat cover for everything he was thinking as he stretched forward, "Huh. Nice. Weird in ways we just can't understand."

She lifted a palm flat up between them to stall him, "Don't touch me."

Caffee gave her a shrugging of acceptance, the emptied cup dangling in his fingers, "I was just hoping for a hug."

"Keep hoping." Ally waved for the stairs once again. "Inside."

"Sure, Lieutenant." He just flacked her a grin, started backwards up the steps with a balance that said he knew them already, regardless of how supposedly short a time he'd been in town. "How much you paying me this time?"

"More than I should." She started following after him at a much slower and lazier pace, putting space between them, "More than you're worth."

The grin he gave over to her insults was what made her feel like time had looped up somehow, circled them back twenty years or so, "What's the game today, Althie? And how many players should I be expecting?"

She hissed against her teeth as her head cocked, steps rising up behind his, "Plenty. Shut up and get in the building."

"You must be damn desperate to call me in."

She stepped up purposefully into the way he'd paused once again, lifting her head into his badgering. "Maybe I'm just finding an end to this particular arrangement."

"Fuck me, I love it when you're like this." He seemed fresh and excited in his stalling, steps stilled as she caught up with him, "You do that thing Bacall does in - "

"Sean." Ally just let the interruption break hard between them, shaking her head into an almost amusement. "It's not happening."

A smile spread over his lean face, "It never does. Doesn't keep me from considering the possibilities."

"You really are sober." She blinked into the realization, feeling her smile almost match his before she remembered everything that had ever slid dark and dirty between them.

"And you really are tired." He seemed saddened in his reaching, his fingers stretching toward her arm before she tightened back.

"Don't touch me." Her repetition was more forceful than the last.

"All right." She hadn't realized he'd ever be capable of shame, but it almost seemed like that's what was strangling his voice up before he nodded, "Hands off. Got it, baby. Let's get this show going."


	46. Chapter 46

Leaning tremors on an unfriendly bathroom sink seemed like something she'd stopped doing right around the time she'd straightened out her bends and stopped taking in every form of illicit pharmaceutical besides an occasional joint. But his presence in her life always seemed to bring her back to watching her face in a stark mirror and wondering what the hell she was doing.

The cold and open reflection both had and hadn't changed. Become one strange merging of an insipid twenty year old girl who couldn't control her temper and a possibly equally questionable county sheriff who still had similar issues. Ally watched her mouth as she blew a breath between her lips, exhaling with an intentionally stilling slowness.

"Jesus," she dropped her glance over the white knuckled gripping of her hands on the sink, forcing her lungs slower, "get it together, Althea."

The problem was that regardless of any outward control, he always had her tasting bloody metallics and liquor and bile in the back of her throat. The swilling mix of them keeping her stomach off-kilter and twisted up until about a week after he'd left town again. She tipped the fingers of her right hand under the automatic faucet, waiting out the water and twisting her fingers in and under it until there was a slow scorching to cold hands. Her eyes lifted back to her face as she intentionally angled both wrists into the warm run, swallowing back on the fetid taste on her tongue.

"You asked for this." She told herself, for once wishing that she could bring herself to just make a phone call and end him completely.

Knowing it could be so easy made the water seemed suddenly scalding, her damp hands breaking back to the porcelain sides as she looked back to herself.

Because as easy as it could be, it would damn well ruin the one that that she'd been unconsciously leaning so far into. It would ruin him.

* * *

><p>"Appreciate this, Elliot." He tapped the cigarette filter into the edge of the box, idly packing it more than necessary as he nodded toward the other man, "More than y'know."<p>

"Trager said as much." The older man shrugged it off as he leaned his arm up onto the edge of the hangar bay's opening, "Ya know, I get it. Keeping daughters safe when and where we can? Seems to be the thing you boys and I can always agree on."

He liked the leaning they made between them.

Because it felt like a history that had been salvaged instead of havoced.

"Scoops'll be making a donation t'your campaign." The Scot nodded as he lit the cigarette, speaking after a long drink of smoke, "Girl's are all set up t'canvas or… whatever Tiggy it was said you needed."

The other man shifted in his suit jacket, looking slightly uncomfortable in the way he waved between them, "Can we make sure they're, uh…"

"Completely dressed? Aye." He grinned deep into a near laugh, cigarette pinched in his fingers as he angled toward the other man and dipped the cross over his chest, "Sure. Ankles covered too, Father?"

Oswald laughed into the movement and shook his glance back out toward the open sky, angling his jaw higher, "Don't gimme shit, Telford. Charming's knee deep in Puritanical rhetoric and you know it. Escorts going door to door is not the, uh, venture I'm attempting to kick off here."

"But a service I may consider offering in the future." Chibs finished off his grinning and sucked down on the cigarette, his glance following the other man's glance, nodding toward a low flying plane, "Comin' low."

"Yeah, that's her." Elliot nodded as he pushed off the edge of the hangar and stepped slowly backwards, his reach clipping against Telford's shirt to tug him back.

"Shit." Chibs crouched forward and away from tugging fingers, scrubbing out the cigarette hard and scuffing his shoe against the remnants as he stood, stepping backwards along with the other man.

"How long's it been since you've seen your daughter?" Oswald smiled into asking, searching the sudden pale of the Scot's cheeks as he turned.

Telford gave him a shrug, avoiding the bemused glance the businessman was aiming his way as they headed for the office. "Few years."

"That explains the look on your face."

Chibs grinned into shaking his head, far past shame as Oswald met his amusement with a quick laugh, "Bit terrified."

"Daughters'll do that to you."

* * *

><p>"I miss you sometimes." He was fiddling with the bottom hem of his pant leg, fingers worrying on it as he bounced his ankle against the opposite knee, "When the world feels too slow and you just gotta find a way to speed shit up so it'll match the rate of your thoughts? That's when. Mostly."<p>

"Stop." She ignored the way his voice seemed like the looped up replay of memories she'd done her absolute best to keep from mentally re-watching, "I mean it."

"You seeing anybody?" he asked as his hips shifted, his shoulders stretching into the low backed chair across from her at the desk.

Her palm flat dropped against the desk top, head lifting in a warning annoyance, "Sean."

"I'm just asking. You have that… heat on you." There was a supposed casual arcing to his movements but his eyes were twice as calm as his motions were jittered.

"California sun." She answered blankly, dropping a look back down over the paperwork he'd pulled and unfolded from his back pocket. All reports from the department he'd worked with most recently, a medical screening, legal paperwork that had been sent along by his lawyer.

The snort he gave her was far from amused, more wise than she would have liked, "More like California roll in the sun."

She happily wallowed a little in the way his voice strained toward petulant before she set aside his legal papers, leaving them on the pile she was making for Patterson, "You're starting to annoy me."

"You were darker in Tulsa." That whispered trapping of his voice had been something she'd heard on and off again, in and out of dreams, "Your hair. And your eyes."

And patience was something she'd always needed more of when he was around, patience and common sense and a cache of other logical things, "Frankly, I'm surprised you remember any of Tulsa."

"Frankly, so am I." His voice had gone quiet, his foot dropping to the floor with a thumping that caught her stilled, "But I remember you. Remember Sedona too."

She refused to admit that she damn sure remembered every sickened up moment of him too. She wasn't sure she'd ever been so thankful for an interruption as the door tipped open by a pressing hand.

"Sorry, LT?" the deputy tossed it quickly toward her, intentionally clipping his words short and direct, "Got a call from Lowen holding. She wanted to go over the Case trial with you."

"See if she can come in late this afternoon? Make it an appointment?" Ally let her hands lay flat onto the papers before him, unconsciously flattening the foldings, "I'll see if I can get Wendy in on it too."

"Sure you're gonna be freed up by afternoon?" Carreira eyes grifted back and forth between the two of them, his face intentionally panned flat and emotionless.

"Not likely." Caffee offered lazily as he slacked farther back in his chair.

"Yes, I will be." She ignored his answering and aimed toward the deputy, "I need Patterson when she has a free moment."

"In house?" He squinted into a questioning that had him drawing a more interested glance toward the other man.

Ally lifted her jaw into his distraction, turning her tone harder. "Yes, please. Thank you."

"So, it's not that one." Sean was smirking at her blithely as the door hushed back shut again, his hand lifted to wave toward it, "Cause I think he's gay."

"He's not. Trust me."

"Really?" The scrutiny that darkened his face was far more self aware than she was used to seeing on him.

"Sean." Ally shook her head slowly, "None of your business."

"Sure, it is." He disagreed sharply, "Making sure you're taking care of yourself."

"And It's not your place to do so."

"Sure, it is." The repetition sounded stilted as he leaned forward, both feet flattening to the office carpet, "I feel indebted. Got plenty to make up for."

"Well, I release you." She leaned back unconsciously away from his forward tipping, letting her shoulders meet into her sturdy desk chair as she forced herself to keep her eyes to his, "Now mind your own goddamn business."

* * *

><p>She was nothin' like what he realized he'd unconsciously expected in the way back of his head. Nothing so young or skittish as she had been when he'd drawn her up tight in Belfast years before. Sure, she was still plenty young and seemingly round faced, wide eyed. But there was a slimming along her cheekbones that seemed too far toward female than girlish and she was damn tall, taller than he remembered. The boots she was wearing added an inch or three, sure. But she was slimmer and longer in the arms and legs. Hair was longer too. He didn't need look down on the girl, because she was sharp jaw lifted and moving straight in his direction with a bag heaved over a slim shoulder.<p>

"Jesus." Chibs caught up into her movement, steps crashing to a halt into the way he met her with a hugging that wrapped against her arms, fingers curling the bag strap as he kissed hard into the side of her head. "Y'alright?"

"Fine." She was nodding as her fingers clutched on the leather that layered his arms, her body shifting as she let him take the bag and slag it to the floor of the open hangar. "Slept a little."

"Kerri - "

"No. Lemme start in, yeah?" Her lips were smiling as he kept her head lifted up toward his so that he could study her features but her eyes were glinted with sarcasm, "It's just til all this blows over, right? Heard it before. Exactly that."

He closed his eyes into how perfectly close her swinging voice and warm breath were as he leaned his forehead into her, whispering quieted between them, "You could tell your father y'love him before steppin' an impractical boot heel on his balls, Kerrianne."

"And maybe I could, if my da was a normal sorta man." She kissed him quick against the cheek in a way that had him blinking amusement into her cheekiness, "A farmer or a plumber or somethin'."

"Mechanic." Chibs winked at her, combing her hair behind her ears with slow fingers, fighting the way her curls had become too perfectly wild but tamed at once.

"Sure." Kerrianne frowned at him momentarily, tugging on his cut as she looked down over him, letting his hands stay as she smiled back up, "Y'look good. But tired."

"And you look like y'been apart from your father too long." He dropped a warning glance down the high boots and leggings and more grown up looking girl than he wanted standing in front of him. "But beautiful. Like your ma."

"Who's pissed as hell." She lifted her jaw into him as he graced his hands down along her shoulders, keeping them unconsciously tightened on her.

"I bet she is."

"I'm not stayin' long as you'd like." He still had her tugged up close but she brought an accusing finger up at him, trying not to match the grinning he couldn't seem to stave off, "You know that. Can handle myself."

"Sure." Chibs nodded quickly, letting his arms curl her closer into another strong wrap into his chest, letting his jaw edge into curls, "I get it. Tell your father you love him."

"Love ya, da." Her arms wrapped up on him tighter along the ribs than he'd expected and he swallowed down hard into the movement, shifting her closer into the realization that she was grasping and still young and probably far more nervous than she was playing at.

"And I love you, sweetheart." The words were murmured into perfume and the warmth of her hair, his palm catching up against the back of her head to make her lean a little longer, "C'mere."

She turned the sidelong glance at him, voice losing most of its chirp and leading quieter as he pulled apart from her and looped his arm against her. "Really as bad as she's sayin'?"

"Close to." He admitted quietly, avoiding the concern she was aiming over him as he dipped to lift her bag onto the other shoulder, "Just have to keep things balanced."

"You're not a very good multi-tasker."

Fiona was bred full in her tone and accusation, but there was still such a possibility of softness in her young face that he just melted into her taunting.

"And you're awfully kind, daughter." He groused aside before tugging her tighter, keeping his arm curled on her shoulders.

"You do look good." Kerrianne murmured as she followed into the speed of his steps, her height seeming awkwardly in line with his own, "But y'do look tired."

"I am, a bit." Sudden worry and an apologetic realization blanked over him, "You tired? Hungry? Need anything? I can - "

She just laughed into his sort of verbal stumbling, "I could eat."

"So, you do eat then? Because you look like you're starvin' yourself."

"Don't start in." Her fingers nudged into his ribs a moment before her hand dropped away, as though she weren't sure of the playfulness, "I eat plenty."

"I missed you." Chibs murmured into slowing their steps intentionally, dragging back the speed as he kept his glance forward to the waiting van. "More than y'know."

"Shoulda come home." Her tone sounded nearly saddened as his.

"I am home, baby." He told her succinctly but turned her a shamed glance anyhow, feeling as though she deserved that and more. "I'm glad you're here."

Kerrianne gave him a smile that was a try for evened up ground once again, "Me too."

"Whatcha want to eat? Huh? We'll get whatever you want."

"You really are gonna spoil me, aren't you?" Her grin made her seem near childish again and he ached into the missing of how perfect it must have been at its height.

Chibs grinned his head closer to hers, whispering a secret of affection between them as he noted which features were more her mother than him, "And didn't I say I would?"

"I could get used to it." Her shrugging matched her slowing steps and he finally let his arm loosen off her, a few steps ahead and turning back into her pausing, "You brought the bike?"

"You're ridin' in the van." He nodded as much authority as he could muster into her question.

"Da - "

"And keepin' to yourself. You don't let those boys even look at ya, get it?" He turned away from the near pouting she was aiming at him, lifting the bag higher on his shoulder as he neared the van and jerked at the sliding door.

"Which boys?" Kerrianne tipped out behind him, her voice drawing nearer alongside the staccato sound of her heels, "Any boys? Or your boys?"

"This is not Spring Break." He dumped the weighty bag into the van and turned back, shoulders drawn up into the way he pointed in her direction, "This is my time."

"I can do both." Her grin was his, through and through. That he was damn well sure of. "I'm a very good multi tasker."

Maybe so was her mischief, if he were to be honest.

"In the van, Kerrianne." He kissed against her hair again, ignoring her teasing as he aimed her for the open door, glaring into the way Rat was craned round and out the driver's window in watching them. "You. Eyes front."

The younger man lifted a hand innocently, dragging his glance off her as she leaned into the van and turning his body back forward, "I wasn't even doin' anything, boss."

"I mean it." Chibs gave his daughter a quick glancing and a reassuring smile while stroking the door closed, pressing weight into the handle to be sure it jacked shut before stepping up into the window. "Not a word. Not a look. Not a breath in the wrong fuckin' direction."

"I get it." Rat was staring forward, head dipping in a quickened nod.

"I'll lead. Bikes in front and back. Nothing stops this van, boy." He rapped his knuckles against the other man's jaw, tapping against Rat's nodding, "Not even me. Get me?"

"Clear." The younger of the two gave him a quick nod, his eyes losing their humor as he caught the severity of Telford's features.

"Good."

"Chibs." Rat leaned out after him, stalling his steps away, "Jarry know she was coming in today?"

"Why?" The President asked tightly, inhaling through his nose as his patience twitched.

"Got a cruiser at the gate." Rat nodded back toward the windshield, his eyes ahead and fingers aiming forward off the wheel, "Been sitting for about twenty."

"Gimme five. Then you do what I told you." He'd already turned his steps toward the front of the van, back straightened, "All right?"

"Yeah, I got it."

* * *

><p>He'd tugged his gloves back over his fingers, slapping a palm lightly to the top of the cruiser as he'd bent toward the open window, "Back on duty, Deputy?"<p>

"So it seems." Eglee let herself lean onto the headrest with a matching smile, lifting her fingers idly off the steering wheel long enough to wave them around, "Full time too. Just like normal. Mandatory overtime, marginal benefits and piss poor pay."

"The Charming way." Chibs dropped despondently between them, glancing back toward the van briefly before bringing a darker glance back to the blonde, "Glad t'have you back, darlin'. You need something from me?"

"Not at all." Her shoulders seemed to shrug up before slacking down, both hands loosening to just barely hold tethered against the lower rungs of the wheel, "Just following my orders."

"Following me?" His head cocked slowly into her smiling.

Candy just gave him a shifting negation, her nearest hand lifting and aiming out her window and on behind him, "Following her."

"And why?"

"To make sure she gets where she's going." She murmured on a nodding glance, her eyes soft and an unexpectedly affectionate look on her still too pale face. "Lieutenant says it's non negotiable."

"Ah." His brows lifted into a look that seemed scraped up annoyed before a smile twitched one dimple deeper, "well, you tell that Lieutenant of yours… thank you."

"Will do, Pres." Candy grinned into the way he let his palm sound lightly off the roof of the car before pressing off it. "Hey, Chibs."

"Aye?"

"Make that call yourself too? When you get a chance?" Her arm braced the door as she leaned out the window a little, concern wiring her jaw, "Carreira called me. She's got a full plate today."

"Of what?" he turned fully back to the car, keeping the space he'd made but watching her dip him a shaded look.

"Of bad history." The implication didn't need to be made any clearer. "And Patterson and Lowen."

He put tight steps back toward the driver's door, pressing the glass of the back window as he leaned over her, "He wasn't supposed t'be here yet."

"Yeah, well, that's what she thought too." Eglee lifted into the apologetically made shrug.

"Okay. I'll call in awhile." He forced her another smile, letting it lean real when she mock saluted his backwards steps, "Thanks."


End file.
